MEASLES AT TRENTHAM

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2491, 18 June 1915, Page 7

MEASLES AT TRENTHAM

HOSPITAL TREATMENT SOLDIERS BROUGHT TO THE CITY Dr. W, J. Barclay, Medical Superintendent of the. Wellington Hospital, jesterday furnished a report to the Hospital Board on the matter of the admission of military, patients to tho institution. The report was as follows: ■For some months past we Have had a number of troopers iu the general tvards suffering from ordinary medical ind surgical ailments. JLu addition, patients suffering from measles have >een admitted to the galvanised iron Jiulding at the back of tho Children's >Vard; there is accommodation there for twenty patients. On June 5, Dr. Valintine, Inspector-General of Hospitals, informed, me that the Defence Department required more accommodation for their sick, and ho asked me to admit military patients to the Victoria chronio ward, stating that he would provide accommodation elsewhere for tlie present inmates of this ward. After consultation with the chairman of the board, the chairman of the Hospital Commit tee. Dr. VaJin'tine, and the Hon. Jlr. Allen, it was agreed to comply with Dr. .Valintine's request. On June 8 the women patients from the Victoria Ward, twenty in number, were transferred to the Home for Aged and Needy. It was arranged that the latter institution should supply nurses to attend to the Victoria patients, but. that medical attendance, laundry work, medicines, and dressings would be supplied from the Wellington Hospital. On June 9 several measles patients were received from Trentham, so that in the wards now at the entire disposal of the military authorities there were 44 measles cases. The intention is to send these patients to the Wellington Hospital at the acute stage of their illness; then as soon as they are convalescent to remove them to Berhampore or elsewhere till they are fit to resume duty. Thus there will be a constant stream of military patients passing in and out of this Hospital, and staying only a few davs. I have been assured that the Defence Department will assist with medical officers to any extent that is required. And after consideration it seemed to be that it would be best for the military medical officers to have sole control of the admission of patients, to direct their treatment in the'wardsj and to transfer them elsewhere when fit •to move. I have therefore had cards prepared, and ,am asking the military medical officers to fill in one of these cards before admitting a patient: also, I am asking them to arrange the discharges of patients. so that there is no overorowding: in fact, I think it will be to reserve the power of refusing to admit more patients when all the available beds are full, for unless great care is exercised I fear that confusion and overcrowding will soon occur." . .

Mr. C. M. Luke remarked that there "ivas a feeling abroad that the women patients should not have been removed while the men could have been removed! The superintendent explained that'the women had only to be moved a short distance.' ' The idea was that if there was necessity to remove the men later they could be removed to some place at a greater distance. Dr. J. Kennedy Elliott oouldliot nr.'derstand why, after the war had been going on for such a time, and when there had. been such large numbers of men quartered' at. Trentham, there was no suitable hospital at Trentham for these cases. What emergency had arisen that space should have to be given-up in this -Hospital P - > - Mr. John Smith stated that the arrangements had been made at the .urgent request of the Government. It was not the board's business to criticise the Government, but merely to assist in getting the men well. The chairman (Mr. H. Baldwin) added that the board had acted in an extraordinary emergency, and took into consideration the best interests of the men who had been lying practically in the open air with t frost upon the ground. It was impossible to give the men the treatment needed at Trentham, and it was decided to accept them in the Hospital. The superintendent had supreme control, and could say whether more were to be accepted or not. In answer to a question by Dr. Kennedy Elliott, the superintendent stated that forty-nine beds were available in the Hospital for measles. Three military patients had died in the Hospital from measles. After further discussion, Mr. Luke moved that the Government be urged to take immediate steps to provide Hospital accommodation at Trentham in the event of a spread of the epidemic. Mrs. T. M. Wilford seconded the motion. Tho motion was earned, the report of the Medical Superintendent being adopted.

NEW HOME FOR CONVALESCENTS. The measles germ is having no end of a busy time among tho soldiers at Trentham. To meet tne demand for accommodation for convalescent patients, a very commodious and peculiarly well adapted depot lias been secured in Messrs. Levin and Company's big store at Kaiwarra. The conversion 'of tho middle story of this fine building into a :onvalescent homo is sufficiently completed for the reception of upwards of 150 men this morning. The building, which is nearly three-quarters of an acre in extent, is very suitably lighted and ventilated. Two, and if necessary three,' rows of beds will line three of the four walls, leaving the middle portion of the room quite free so as to permit of ample fresh air. Complete arrangements have teen made for cooking, special bathrooms and other conveniences have been installed, and altogether the erstwhile store has been rxmverted into a particularly comfortable and healthy home. A billiard-table (donated by Messrs. Alcock and Co.) has'been installed, and with the various other games and reading matter which it is expected will be readily donated the convalescing period of tho inmates should not be the most unhappy time of their lives. The medical officers have deemed it essential that the cases at Trentham, at present billeted in the Racing Club's buildings, should be shifted immediately, and accordingly these men, together with a number who have sufficiently recovered at Wellington Hos pital and. Mr. Izard's house at Upper Hutt, will be conveyed this morning by special trains to their new home at ■Kaiwarra. ..... Patients will remain isolated m this depot until they are well past the contagious stage and fit and well.