Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1947 PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 98, 24 February 1947, Page 4

Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1947 PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE

ALL over New Zealand are hospitals chronically over-crowd-ed for the obvious reason that there are too many patients clamouring for admittance. In the words of the chairman of the Auckland Hospital Board an “ . . . almost tragic state of conditions” pertains. The number of patients in the Auckland Hospital had increased 100 per cent, in seven years due mainly to Social Security legislation. Is it proper to so place the responsibility? Assuredly it must be for the constitution of a people not by Nature be altered so rapidly for the worse, under conditions that have ruled in this fair land of late years. What then has the country to show for all this hospitalisation? Can it be said that the deathrate has lowered or standards of health have risen? There is no evidence of improvement in either regard. In the Auckland opinion, much of the over-crowding of our hospitals everywhere seen, results from persons being admitted as bed patients when they could be treated by outside doctors or as out-patients. This points to a mal-adjustment in. social conditions. But apart from considerations of that nature, there must be given a judgment upon Social Security that it is too wrapped up in alleviation and too little concerned with the prevention of illness. Ever is prevention better than'cure. It is a tragic weakness of Social Security administration that all its emphasis is upon healing. The greater proportion of human ailments, especially amongst people below sixty years, is preventable. New Zealand’s present standards of health, judged upon hospital records, gives cause for deepest concern. Almost might it be said that we are a C2 nation where no other people on earth enjoy more congenial conditions. Clearly is there room for vast improvement and certainly no cause for pride and complacency. Let Government and people earnestly address themselves to living more health-giving lives. But one-quarter of the vast expenditure projected upon those “human repair shops,” our hospitals, would produce more beneficial results applied to instruction on how to remain healthy.