The Evening Star TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 1929. A CANCER HOSPITAL.

Evening Star, Issue 20134, 26 March 1929, Page 8

The Evening Star TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 1929. A CANCER HOSPITAL.

When tho Minister of Public Health was in Dunedin last week he was approached by representatives of tho University Council and the Hospital Board for a Government subsidy on funds for the purchase of radium. Mr Stallworthy mentioned that there was practically unanimity over the need for a cancer hospital in New Zealand; that there was no opposition to its being in Dunedin, the town where tho Medical School is; and that he agreed with this. Opposition has, however, been promptly voiced, and it comes from the customary source. The Auckland newspapers perennially show jealousy of Dunedin’s Medical School, and discover reasons why its proper location should bo Auckland. Therefore one reads. without surprise that the ‘ New Zealand Herald ’ is equally emphatic on the need for a special cancer hospital and on the unsuitability of Dunedin ns its home, on the grounds of science and humanity. Tho trouble appears to be that Dunedin is not central and cannot provide as many sufferers from cancer as other places in New Zealand. Were it not that Auckland is no more centrally situated than Dunedin wc would congratulate our northern contemporary on its naive unconventionality in thus exposing its sores after the maimer of those beggars who frequent the cathedral steps of some Mediterranean countries. It appears that, in tho meantime, Wellington is being indicated as the proper site. Tho first step is to checkmate Dunedin. Doubtless, were that accomplished, the question of centrality would come up for revision. The ‘ New Zealand Herald ’ professes to read tho mind of Mr Simpson Handley, and declares that he really had in mind a central location for a cancer hospital when he gave his views when recently consulted in Wellington concerning cancer research and treatment. The grounds for such a construction being placed on Mr Handley’s advice appear to bo that he used the word “ centralisation.” Needless to say, he was stressing centralisation of effort, and not concerning himself with the geography of New Zealand. Mr Handley is an English specialist, and, after the conclusion of the annual meeting of tho New Zealand branch of the British. Medical Association, ho attended a conference, presided over by the Minister of Public Health, and attended by senior departmental officers and representatives of tho 8.M.A., among the latter being Dr J. S. Elliott, president of the New Zealand branch, and Professor Hercus, of tho Dunedin Medical School. The agenda paper dealt solely with cancer and its treatment. On Dr Valintine’s contesting the necessity for a special cancer hospital, and declaring that there would ho tremendous objections by the four chief towns to its establishment in any ono of thorn, Mr Handley said there were great advantages in having a central hospital, both in the interests of patients and as a teaching place, where the specialist could educate himself and then educate doctors from different parts, and also disseminate information to tho public. Such an institution would not necessarily attempt to deal ■with half tho eases of cancer, some cases being left to the other hospitals—say, fifty beds in the central hospital, with ■ special cancer wards at hospitals in the other main towns. The principle was conceded by tho conference, and Mr Stallworthy asked Dr Elliott for his views, and not till then was geography introduced. Dr Elliott said ho thought the hospital should be in Wellington for the convenience of patients, despite tho fact of the Medical School being'in Dunedin. The Minister then asked Professor Hercus his opinion, which was

that from a national aspect the cancer hospital should be adjacent to the Medical School for obvious reasons. These he enumerated as the training of our future doctors, the availability of the laboratories, and research and postgraduate work. As to clinical material, Professor Hercus said there would be no difficulty in keeping fifty or sixty beds' occupied from the South Island alone. Then the Minister sought Mr Handley’s view", and he said: “As tho institution is not to take more than a proportion of cancer cases its geographical situation is not a dominant consideration from tho patients’ point of view. There should be enough cases in the South Island to keep it full.” On Dr Elliott suggesting the likelihood of duplication because of the North Island insisting on having its own cancer hospital, Mr Handley pointed out that the hospital must be close to scientific laboratories, and must bo in tho best position for teaching the undergraduates and post-graduates. As this evoked from Dr Young the comment that they “ could not help but approve of Mr Handley’s suggestion of having a special cancer hospital, and that situated in tho teaching school,” it is obvious that tho ‘ New Zealand Herald ’ has not been fair to Mr Handley nor conspicuously successful in its essay at mind-reading. If further argument ■were needed it has been supplied by Dr L. E. Barnett in a letter to the ‘ Dominion,’ in which ho says that laboratory research necessitates ample accommodation, animal houses, elaborate equipment, and especially trained personnel, and could not at present bo satisfactorily undertaken anywhere else than at tho spacious Medical School tho dominion possesses at Dunedin, whore already there is tho nucleus of a cancer research department. Those who know appear to be practically unanimous that facility of access is of far Joss importance than facility of post-graduate study and concentrated research. Without touching Canterbury, the clinical material at Dunedin Hospital is already too surely supplied by Otago ami Southland. In 1927 there was. intensive study of 100 cancer cases at Dunedin, and in 1926 intensive study of 75 cases. It is not only the postgraduates but New Zealand's medical profession of to-morrow who benefit by such training.