GENERAL POSITION REVIEWED

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 50, 23 November 1918, Page 8

GENERAL POSITION REVIEWED

STATEMENT BY MINISTER OF ■ - HEALTH. . . "I. am glad to say that a telegram came from the Mayor of .Auckland today stating that conditions in that city are rapidly improving," stated tho Hon. U. W. liusscll, speaking to a reporter yusterdny afternoon. All the information to hand from the northern, city went to confirm this, he added;.and the principal work now in the, Auckland district arose out of the prevalance of the epidemic amongst, tue Native and in tho outer districts. ■' The reports from the Wellington workers.shoived that the improvement already ;ioted was maintained, and all the .information as regards the southern towns was to the effect that though the epidemic: was sevcro and very widespread, it had not taken on the virulent form to the same degree as had been the case in the two northern cities. ' , In the eight temporary hospitals in Wellington, etated Mr. Russell, there are 414* beds—27l for males and 140 for females—and at noon yesterday there u;ere 35 vacant beds. The admissions during the past twelve hours had been. 23, while the discharges during the same, period had been 19, and the deaths' 30. Iho convalescent homes established up to the present nuiftbered four, with 93 beds, in, all, of which 12 were for females, and, 81 for males. There was a fair number of bads vacant in these institutions.

The Minister had received several applications from public bodies, who desired to take advantage of the proposals published in Thursday's paper.; regarding the establishment of temporary hospitals by the local authorities in tarns and centres where hospitals did not exist; but the real difficulty in such places was the lack of trained persons to act as nurses and the shortage of medical men. The shortage of both imrsc\ and medical menliad been tremendously accentuated by many of both these classes being themselves stricken down by the disease. On' Monday, for instance,, a number of fourth-year medical student's lind left Dimedin to take up epidemic work. Two of them went to Oaniani' and were at once affected by the epidemic. Another student proceeded to Ifokitilca, arriving there' on Tuesday night, and was immediately sliicken by the malady.. It was hardly necessary to Bay,how enormously thin state of affairs had affected the now","s of the Health Department to deal with the disease. Jiever.inpT to the position in Wellington, the Minister declared that it was ii subject for 'amazement that in this city the repeated calls made for voluu-

teer workers, espeially women, had met with so poor a response. There were • eight temporary hospitals in the city, and the greatest difficulty was being experienced in keeping tlipni going. Some women had bravely stuck to. their gums to the point of exhaustion. The appeals that had been made by the leaders of the Wellington organisations had, unfortunately, niilen in too many cases on (loaf oars. No doubt many had sickness in their homes, and no reproach was cast upon them; but those who were in til" possession of. hill health and strength, and wero not trammelled by homo ties Hail, 111 his opinion, a great responsibility to carry in not assisting .these brave and devoted women who were at the present time working so hard for tho saving of life and nursing eick peo--pie back to health. Tho few remarks that he had mado in the House of Representatives on Tuesday last as to the necessity for training youths and. girls in regard to .sickness, sanitation, hygiene, and nursing had attracted some attention. It was at a time like this that ojio felt the necessity of knowledge upon these matters being universal amongst our people. With tin , depleted medical service and Gib shortage of trained nurses, tho absence of a wider knowledge of these subjects amongst the women oi the country arid, also amongst 'lie men ciiino homo to us all. On tho block system which had been adopted, the supervisors who had gone from house to house had met with many cases where ability tu take temperatures .and a knowledge of tho fundamentals of sick-nursinu' would We been of enormous benefit by rendering unnecessary vis.ts by medicil men, whoso time and attention could have bsen far better devoted 'to the really sei-ioue cases. Another kindral matter was the need for widespread information as to cookery for the sick-room.