The Daily Telegraph WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), 9 March 1881, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 1881.

It has been asserted lately that every subscriber of two guiners to the Napier Heepital is in possession of a copy of the bye-laws of that institution. The assertion was made with the object, apparently, of showing that no subscriber would, or could, be so foolish as to send anyone to the Hospital suffering from a complaint to which the bye-laws debarred the resident surgeon from attending. Now it so happens that there were only one hundred copies of the bye-laws printed, and ws have ascertained that very few subscribers are in possession of them. This fact is, perhaps, of little importance, as we are given to understand that at the nest meeting of the committee a material alteration will be made in the regulations. The alteration contemplated is with respect to the admission of patienie. The first clause ruus as follows : —'* The Hospital is open at all tiaaes for the admission of accirleuto and cases or' emergency. Cases of ordinary illness will be admitted by ticket signed by a member of the Committee, or a subscriber, subject to the rules made on that behalf. A limited number of patients who can afford to pay for board and maintenance may be admitted by special permission of the Visiting Committee, to whom all applications, together with a statement of the special reasons for the application, must be made." It be seen from the above that caaes of ordinary illness will be admitted by ticket signed by a member of the Committee or a subscriber, but there is not one word as to where these tickets aie to be obtained, nor are there any directions given as to where a member of the Committee, ora subscriber, to sign a ticket is to be found. We imagine a case must be of a very ordinary character indeed that will permit the sick persou to hunt through the town for a subscriber. A simple plan would be to give authority to all the medical practitioners to send patients to the Hospital. The lesa there is of red-tape in matters relating to the relief of the sick and suffering the more useful the Hospital and the more entitled to public support. The second section of the first clause lays down the cast-iron rule that "insane persons, epileptics, persons suffering from incurable diseases, subjects of contagious diseases, women for the purpose of confinement, children under five years of age, except for accident or operation, will not be admitted for treatment." To the non-professional mind it would occur that the number of diseases eliminated from treatment just about make the list to which human flesh is heir. The chief cause that led to the erection and maintenance of this new hospital was the inadequacy of the old building for the trentroeat of fever cases. The fever which at that time caused co

much mortality wap, we are told, highly infectious. la infection ?ess dangerous than ? But it would seem that infectious diseases that might attack the whole of the patients within the hospital may be treated withiu the building, while contagious dloease's that can hurt no one with proper care cannot be admitted. The riOes that we h v<3 quoted from were passed on Noveaibe'r o, 1880—foar months ago—and we know no other regulations. It will be rembered, however, that a case from Farndon was refused admiasion ; a case that was not contagious, a case which might well have come under the heading " sudden emergency." We say that we do not know of any other rules than those now before us, which certainly demand very material amendment. As they are now they place the Hospital at a great disadvantage as compared with the old institution. Utterly unfitted for the purpose as the old building was, it was a hospital in every cense of the word. It was in truth very far from a show place, being a dipgrace to tbe towD. At the sams time it fulfilled a benevoletit mission, and its loss at this time is probably more felt tfeaa are the pdvantages of the new HosphaJ appreciated. The old institu-ik-Q asked for no public support and received none; but then it did not cripple its utility by bye-laws. The new Hospital i" wholly dependent upon charity ; it is, in fact, a people's institution, but apparently, because the place is supported by the people, the people derive less benefit from it, and have less to cay in its management tb;i.i they had whea they had noO'ing to do with the maintenance of a hospital. It the present institution is to be supported by pab'ic contributions its bye-laws muef be framed on the most liberal foundations. We must hear no more of cases of emergency being refused admission, and we ruupc have the most gratifying proof that it \a not only deserving of the utmost support, but that the money so contributed is not frittered away in needless show> expenses on the one hand, nor thrown away in extravagant administration on the other.