Wards are becoming vacant

Entering the 1960s, the average age of TB patients was on the rise. In 1961, with the number of patients in decline, Pikonlinna started admitting patients from other tuberculosis districts. These patients came mainly from the provinces of Oulu and Lapland.

The children’s ward at Pikonlinna was closed down in 1963 and two adult wards were closed down in 1965. Out of the 390 existing hospital beds only 265 were kept ready for use.

Patients with extra pulmonary tuberculosis or complications of pulmonary tuberculosis were ever increasingly being treated at the Tampere Central Hospital. The patient load had thus diminished in the Central Häme Sanatorium. The sanatorium was, however, constrained by the tuberculosis law, according to which it was not possible to expand the sanatorium’s operations to the treatment of closely related, but non-tuberculosis diseases. In 1968 the number of the hospital beds in the sanatorium was reduced to 221 on the basis of the decision made by the Council of State.

The average patient stay in days (during the years 1931-1946; patients who spent less than 30 days in the sanatorium were excluded). (pdf)