BOPDHB History Tauranga Hospital Centennial Book | Page 31

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In 1914 there were not the medicines
to treat patients that are available
now. Through knowledge and science,
antibiotics and other medicines are
constantly being developed to treat
disease and illness.

Changes in Medicine
advances with drugs and radiology in all forms of
cancer, and new vaccines for disease prevention like
polio, rubella, hepatitis and mumps.
“All these wonderful developments in treatments
we now regard as routine and meet our ordinary
everyday expectations. Whole groups of highly
qualified specialists have been trained to meet these
expectations and do so now with ‘routine’ success.
We all enjoy extended health and happiness as a
consequence,” says Arthur.

Dr Paul Mountfort, Retired Senior Surgeon
My Arrival at Tauranga Hospital 1949

“Hello Mountfort! Nice to see you. I’ve been on-call
continuously for 35 days and now I’m going on holiday.”
In so saying, Dr Sligo handed me a bunch of keys and said,
“I’ll see you in a fortnight.”

“It’s not our bodies but the bacteria that have changed. They’ve learnt a
few tricks and we haven’t caught up with them yet. That’s the challenge
for the next generation in medicine.”

Dr Arthur Reid, Retired Consultant
Physician and Deputy Medical
Superintendent
Tauranga Hospital’s Arthur Reid has witnessed huge
changes in medicine and treatment over the five
decades he worked here. He has seen a number of
firsts in medical improvement such as the progress
in radiology (CT and MRI scans), coronary and open
heart surgery, organ and joint replacements and other
revolutionary discoveries.
“I graduated in 1949. That was near the beginning of
the antibiotic era with Penicillin and then Streptomycin
being the first antibiotics made widely available. The
results in overcoming bacterial diseases like pneumonia
were miraculous. Unfortunately due to the emergence
of bacterial resistance factors we are now loosing that
miracle,” says Arthur.
Other advancements that Arthur has seen change the
face of medicine include the use of nuclear medicine,

Tauranga Hospital was a single storied rough cast building
with a tiled roof. From the outside it was quite attractive.
There was a tennis court in front, with a drive for cars
separating it from the Boiler House with a tall chimney.
The entrance led to a short corridor, from which there
was a small Receptionist’s Office, with a switchboard,
the Superintendent’s Office, the Dispensary and a public
Waiting Room. At the end, was a larger corridor at right
angles, which gave access to two wards, the Theatre, the
X-ray Room, the Matron’s Office and the kitchen.
The two wards were identical; each was a large hall with a
divider across the middle. There were two side rooms,
a Ward Sister’s Office, a sterilising room and to one side,
a sluice room and toilets. Around two sides was a glassedin veranda for children and convalescents. One ward
was for females and the other for males. The patients
were aligned along the walls and if necessary, down the
centre too. The first half was for acutely ill patients and
the second half for elderly permanent cases. There was a
third ward, made of wood which had about a dozen single
rooms, used for chronically ill tuberculous patients. It was
on a small rise, not far from the main block.
There were a number of small wooden huts dotted about,
for the carpenters, the painters, the laboratory, a surgical
boot maker and one was used by a chronic paraplegic
called Scotty Savage, who went out there in his wheelchair
and made ‘home brew’.

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