A QUEERLY CONDUCTED HOSPITAL.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1166, 4 July 1884, Page 3

A QUEERLY CONDUCTED HOSPITAL.

According to a late Napier paper, the Hospital there must he conducted in a ratlier oose manner, and in one which must he anything bile bene* ficial to the patient inmates. At a recent meeting of the Board the Visiting Committee reported that “they had to report with regret cases of most disgraceful conduct on the pare of two of the patients, one of whom, M'Gahey, a patient suffering from heart disease, on .two occasions returned to the institution in a state of intoxication. On another occasion, Mr Mtrgoliouth, one of the committee, received a letter from the matron desiring his attendance, as one of the patients had returned in a beastly state, of intoxication, and she had been compelled to send for a constable to'give him in charge. Mr ■Maigolioath on hia way to the Hospi tal, met the marl, a patient named Caulfield, whq had .been admitted suffering lyota arm,, in charge of a cons table, Morgoiliouth then proceeded to where he found the matron ' and nurses in a state of consicterable alarm, owing to the scenes which they had just wit- • nessecl. He also found in the male ward a patient named Patrick Matthews in a state of intoxication.” The committee sent the following;— “ That in no case shall persona suffering in any way from the effects of alcoholism be admitted to the Hospital ; that no passes be issued by the , Surgeon Superintendent, except iu cases of extreme urgency ; that on the : admission of any patient, male or ; female, money and other articles of , value found on them shall be taken charge of by the Surgeon Superintendent, and shall be entered by him in the property hook kept for that purpose ; that the matron be em- ' powered by the committee to engage and dismiss the inferior servants.” According to the statements made by member’s of the committee, these pas-es had • een issued indiscriminately. 1 n further proof of the disorganisation of tire establishment, the matron mentioned . that she and a nurse girl had to endeavour to detain Caulfield on the vetandah whim a constable was sent for, “as it was the more needful on account of a poor dying man to whom Caulfield’s lan guage and violent manner must have been very distressing” Then to crown all, a paiient in the Hospital sent a letter to the Board, from which the following are extracts : —Having come into the Hospital for an operation, you will kindly allow me to lay a tew facts before you of the goings on of men or fiends, who c >me into the Hospital suffering from, as the dietsheets call it, alcoholism, or D.T. The first one was a man of the name of Prebble. This man was mad for over a week. He ■would jump out ot bed and chase the • devils ’as he would call 'hem, up and down the 1 ward, and he would also tear his shirts off his back and say they were 4 devils.’ The nurse gave him another shirt, and he did the same with it; and then convalescent patients have to stay out of their beds to watch the like. Men were also got from the outside to watch him—a nice job, certainly, to watch a man in the blues.’ But the most disgraceful above all is that female nurses have to be where these men are, and have to attend ou them. In this case It was disgusting for females to be in the place, to say nothing of the annoyance to the patients. The next case of the kind was a man by the name of Dinman, who came in on April. 21st. He was not so had, although he would wake up all hands when he started howling in the night. The next case was a man named Pattison. -He started his capers by peltirg fruit aipout the wards. He carried on his g-mes nil night, and three of .the convalescent patients had to watch him in turns for the safety of others. The same evening one of the patients named M‘Gahey came home intoxicate I, and . grossly insulted the nurse, and wanted to tight some of the patients. , The ward was more like a madhouse than a hospital that night, and sleeping was simply a farce that night.”