HOSPITALS AND DISEASE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1859, 19 September 1913, Page 11

HOSPITALS AND DISEASE.

MODERN METHODS IN MEDICAL : SCIENCE. Replying to a resolution of welcome passed at yesterday's meeting of tile Hospital Board, Dr. Hardwick Smith, medical superintendent of tho Wellington Hospital, said that ho > bad had much valuable experience dining his recent visit to. England. Ono thing which impressed him was the system of treating consumptives, under tho Insurance Act. A big fight was being waged against this disease, aiid the work was being carried out in a scientific and business-liko manner. In ovory county they had a tuberculosis oflieer, to whom cases were reported, and who supervised their treatment. Ho thought that such officers should bo appointed in Now Zealand to co-operato with hospital staffs and outside practitioners. Another matter which interested him vory much w!\s tho treatment of children. Tho children woro tho assets of tho country, and tliey must be looked after if the raco was to bo virilo. At Birmingham ho had seen recovery schools, which woro intended for tho treatment of convalescent children. Thoro were also,, consumptive schools, where tuberculosis children wero treated. Special cars picked up tho children in tho morning, and took them to tho schools, which were situated outside tho cities, and where tho children were taught m tho open air. ' The idea was a very fin©| one. He did not say that the same necessity existed <here, but these schools showed that in England they took steps to combat this very insidious dise'ase that _were as yet unheard of in the Dominion. Die medical inspection of the'school children was a splendid thing,' and ho was glad that it was to bo' carried out in New Zealand. '

From what ho had. seen in the hospitals at Homo, ho was prepared to say that New Zealand surgeons woro able to hold their own, and somo tilings they even did' bettor. Of courso, ill England they had more advantages, and more money was spent on tho hospitals. Ne"' Zealand boards had been strong on economy, and tho surgeons had had to learn to "do without." He thought; however, that.as the public became more educated to the Tact that medical science was always progressing, they would feel that money would have to bo supplied. In certain departments of hospital work they wero rather antiquated in Now Zealand," but that could not bo .helped as ideas of hospital construction had sreatly altered in 'tho last 20 yeai'i;. When tho present buildings had to bo replaced by up-to-dato structures they could liopo for many valuable changes. Although tho capital eliargo of now hospitals will bo greater in tho future, tho cost of maintenance will bo much loss. Ho had found, Dr. Hardwick Smith concluded, that hospitals wero run more cheaply in the Dominion than wero institutions of tho same size in Great Britain and America. ■ What ho had seen had made him wonder whether sometimes Now Zealand economy in this respect was real economy.