Contact Artefacts please if you have any comments or more information regarding this record.	Menu Home Upfront Now Up Books Towns Structures People Firms Lexicon		Transvaal Memorial Hospital for Children - Ward Block Extension Johannesburg, Gauteng GORDON LEITH and PARTNERS: Architect

Date: c. 1940 Client: Transvaal Provincial administration Department of Health Type: Hospital Style: Modern Status: Repurposed   Click to view large map Coordinates: 26°11'16.41" S 28°02'22.36" E Alt: 1766m

THE TRANSVAAL MEMORIAL HOSPITAL FOR CHILDREN New Ward Block A Modern Design Embodying The Latest Principle Of Isolating Young Patients Into Small ward Groups An interesting design for a new ward block for young children is provided by the recently erected four-storey extension to the Transvaal Memorial Hospital for Children at Milner Park, Johannesburg. This new block is designed to accommodate medical cases exclusively, the architects being Messrs. Gordon Leith and Partners. The planning of the new ward block embodies the modern principle of isolating young children into small groups to avoid cross-infection by air-borne diseases such as chicken pox, diphtheria and scarlet fever. Allied to this principle is the modern system of facilitating supervision by having glazed partition walls between all wards and between the wards and corridors. This glazing is carried out from a height of 2 ft. 6 in. [750mm] above floor level to the ceiling. The principle of isolation adopted has resulted in the following ward arrangement:- The lower ground floor and the upper ground floor are for children over six years of age. On the lower ground floor there are three Single-bed wards, one 6-bed ward and one 4-bed ward. This floor also provides accommodation for mothers who have to spend the night at the hospital in cases where their children are seriously ill. Two bedrooms are provided for this purpose. The upper ground floor contains one 6-bed ward, two 4-bed wards, two 2-bed wards and four single-bed wards. In addition there is a dining room for semi-convalescent children. The first and second floors are for children under six years of age. Each of these two upper floors is provided with one 6-bed ward, two 4-bed wards, two 2-bed wards and two air conditioned wards for prematurely born babies who are treated here under special conditions of temperature and air humidity. Service units comprise a duty room, a sluice room, a utility room, a clinic room, bathrooms and w.c.'s on each floor. The two lower floors each have an ordinary ward kitchen and the two upper floors have each a special milk kitchen. A stoep is provided on all floors on the south elevation for general purposes as well as the handling of soiled linen. On the flat roof there is a sun porch for children requiring sun treatment. In each ward on the two upper floors a special baby's bath has been provided for use in cases where infants may not be moved out of the ward. These are in addition to the usual bathrooms. The usual sterilisers have been provided, these being supplied with steam from the main boiler house. The building is heated throughout with hot water radiators. The new ward block is of reinforced concrete construction and is faced externally in brick with plaster dressings. The concrete construction is of the “truscon" type giving flat ceilings throughout. All corridors, kitchens and sluice rooms are sound-proofed with asbestos-sprayed ceilings. wood block floors have been laid in the wards, but in the corridors and duty rooms the floors are covered with linoleum. Cement tile flooring has been used in the service rooms. The glazed partition walls to the wards have been mentioned above. All the service rooms are partitioned with brick walling and are located on the south side of the corridor. The wards face north, their windows being unobstructed by balconies. Balconies, however, have been provided on the west elevation for such patients as may benefit by their use. The new ward block is connected to the existing building by a corridor on the ground floor only. It has its own separate lift for access to the upper floors. (PWSA October 1941 Vol VI No 36:6-8)