RELEASE OF AMBULANCE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 55, 26 March 1946, Page 4

RELEASE OF AMBULANCE

QUESTION OF SERIOUS CASES

TANEATUA CLAIMS PRESENTED “I think it’s time Taneatua had a doctor permanently resident there,” said Mr A. McGougan at the meeting of the Whakatane Hospital Board. “I consider that in a central district like that there should be a doctor there in order to save travelling all the way to Whakatane and in the case of serious accidents or illness, they could be attended to at once and despatched to the Jhiospital if necessary.”

Mr McGougan introduced a case where a recent patient who was seriously ill, required the ambulance to transport her to the hospital. Upon enquiry the anxious relatives had been informed that the ambulance could not be sent without a doctor’s permission. He quite agreed with that but the position was that no doctor could be contacted in the town, and a long delay occurred which might have had serious results. He wanted to know whether or not the hospital could give the authority without worrying about the private practitioners who were so hard to get. Another point was that the Taneatua exchange closed at midnight and could only be opened for urgent cases by rousing the attendant from bed. The position had now arrived when new medical men were urgently needed in the country districts.

Mr Burt: It would be ridiculous to have to wait for a doctor to be contacted before the ambulance could be sent in serious accident cases. The person might be dead when it got there.

Dr. Dawson said it was the first he had heard of the incident, but he could assure Board members that the hospital had never refused to send out the ambulance when it was asked for. The position was that a private doctor usually authorised the ambulanceto be sent but it was quite possible for the authority to be given from the hospital.