SLOW DISCHARGES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20028, 29 August 1939, Page 4

SLOW DISCHARGES

DILATORY RELATIVES REMOVAL OF PATIENTS EXPERIENCE AT HOSPITAL PARENTS TAKE HOLIDAY “There are cases in which relatives of patients show extreme selfishness. They simply wish to put the obligation for looking after their own responsibilities on the board,” said the medical superintendent of the Cook Hospital, Dr. R. J. B. Hall, reporting to the board yesterday on the congestion in the wards.

The superintendent had referred to the shortage of accommodation in the wards, and the necessity for hastening as much as possible the provision of additional beds for chronic patients.

He added, however, that there was one advantage in having the wards full and patients waiting, in that it gave the medical staff the best possible argument for sending home people whose relatives were reluctant to assume their responsibilities. Pressure on Facilities With people waiting to come into hospital, he pointed out, there could be no excuse for people leaving convalescent relatives in the wards, which many were Inclined to do. "We have had cases in which the patients were well enough to be taken under the care of their own people, but the latter wished them to remain on in hospital, rather than take them home,” Dr. Hall said. “In one case, a child was ready for discharge, and it was found that the parents had gone off on a holiday.”

Members of the board considered that relatives should be forced to accept their obligations, and especially at a time when the pressure on the hospital facilities was as acute as at present. The medical superintendent was authorised to take the necessary steps to deal with convalescent patients whose relatives were reluctant to take them home.

“The only way to deal with some cases is to tell the relatives that unless they are prepared to do their part, the patients will be put in the ambulance and deposited on their doorsteps,” Dr. Hall commented.