44 The Hospital Requirements of Sydney. 



The main front building was erected for the purpose of a con- 

 vict hospital. It consists of eight wards on two floors, each 

 measuring about 60 feet long, 24 wide, and 15 high ; two stair- 

 case and entrance halls, and verandahs all round both floors. 

 The ground floor is raised about 4 feet, the walls are faced with 

 square cut stones, I believe about six inches thick, the remaining 

 substance of the wall being formed of rubble stone. The general 

 plan of the building — and the selection of its glorious site — speak 

 highly for the judgment and enlightened views of Governor Mac- 

 quarie. Sixty years have, however, now elapsed since the building 

 was erected, and it has done its work — first as a convict hospital, 

 then as a store, and finally as a general hospital. Science has also 

 made rapid strides, and the building — not originally adapted 

 to the purposes of a general hospital — has become wholly incap- 

 able of meeting the requirements of the present day. It contains 

 beds for about 112 patients, but only one of the wards possesses a 

 water-closet, and none of them a lavatory or bath-room, sink, at- 

 tendants' room, or scullery. The windows provide inefficient ven- 

 tilation, and cannot safely be altered. The floors and stairs have 

 required constant repairs, the roof is faulty, the drainage is alto- 

 gether defective, and passes beneath the centre of the building. 



Such is the present state of the Sydney Infirmary. It occupies 

 one of the finest and most convenient hospital sites in the world. 

 It possesses a substantial, well arranged modern pavilion wing 

 for eighty patients, and the Nightingale wing will have accom- 

 modation for a complete nursing staff for 300 patients. 



Lastly, the decayed and inefficient front building occupies an 

 unequalled site for a memorial hospital, capable of receiving 200 

 patients, and of relieving the ground of most of the small de- 

 tached buildings which now encumber it. 



The difficulty of altering and enlarging the main front building 

 of the Infirmary exists in the form of the structure, which although 

 well designed for the special circumstances under which it was 

 designed, renders it impossible to make provision for the requisites 

 of a modern hospital for severe cases, without breaking the line 

 of wall in no less than five portions of the front and back of the 

 building, causing no less than sixty angles,from which the sun and 

 wind would be more or less excluded. The great inconvenience 

 of this has been rendered more evident since the alterations of 

 the south wing have been in progress. 



The abovementioned is not, however, the only drawback. It 

 would still be necessary to reconstruct the detached buildings now 

 upon the ground, and raise the present front structure at the 

 north and south front gates, and erect an additional one behind 

 to provide for small special wards and an efficient operating 

 theatre. 



