The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, DEC. 5, 1906.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1950, 5 December 1906, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, DEC. 5, 1906.

A woupp am apologist for tho surgeon and matron of the hospital, and an advocate for rewarding alleged neglect and mismanagement by promotion to higher pay and greater authority, treata us to the following piece of philosophical wisdom:— "A district ‘ hospital is an institution peculiarly ‘ subject to public criticism. It is a ‘depository of tho worst surgical and ‘ medical cases that occur iu a com- ‘ muuity, and when deaths happen, as ‘ they unfortunately do even in the ‘best regulated institutions, there is ‘ not infrequently someone at hand to ‘suggest that tho eases should have 1 been managed differently.” You may not credit it, but this is intended to refer to our local institution, and so you may now believe on authority that it is “ the depository of the worst surgical and medical cases ” ; but what will puzzle the reader is to find out who is meant by the “ somoone at hand to suggest that the caGes should be managed differently.” Surely it i 3 not the sorrowing relatives of the deceased girl and their friends who themselves in tho case that formed && subject of the enquiry, for not one ot suggested anything that would waif". !l ®t the use of that expression, which meal"'* s nothing more nor lees than that they mere busybodies who could not mind w‘ ! ir own business and let the hospital alone. If they are net the “someone ” thore is no one else to whom the superhuman effort of mentality that is covered up in those ' words can apply but ourselves. And yet it cannot be, for we have never suggested that any of these “worst surgical and medical casc3 ” “ should bo managed differently.” Anyway, if it is desired that we should wear the “ poiae ” in the interests of truth and better hospital management we accept it most cheerfully on one condition, viz , that conundrums shell not form the basis of the nostrums to be served out for the delectation of hospital patients and others whose personal

'ntoroata concorn thorn with that inati-

tuUon. In that rospoct wo havo always spokou plainly, and it thornforoill bocomca our half hoartod cri'ics to sholtor criticism iu meaningless inuuondo. Wo know enough of human nature to boliovo that a healthy public opinion appreciates plain syoiking whon it is spolcon in the public intorost and is froo from personal spleen, narrow-mindedness, or a hope of por

aonal aggrandisement. In our ti ea - rnout of iho hospital tnqui y wo 1 avo complied with all these conditions, an have no moro desire to do Ur Morrison or the matron an injury than wo have to do ourselves one. But in a caso of

this nature, where it is a question o* Life or doath to some patients confined in our hospital and of porsonal comfort to others, sympathy must not all .be lavished upon the doctor and hi 3 stair, j and some of it is also duo to the patients thomsolves and to the be--reaved friends of those who. have succumbed to tho ravages of diseases that possibly might havo been checked. Wo fully appreciate the dillicultios of a doctor’s and a matron’s positions, having had a closer personal knowledge of them than our mild critic has ban the opportunity of having, and m urging that a. further enquiry should bo hold into the management of the hospital, we did so with tho. full knowloo ge that a proper and complete enquiry could not fail to remedy any evils if they exist, and result iu the complete < xoneiaUon of the doctor and

tin? liiiJTi'cli 11* tlmv JiOLO tO tailOW that thc-ir conduct and treatment arc a,bovo reproach. In their own intor< sta, therefore, the oixjuiiy should be held, unu to those who would urge that the matter should be hushed up at iia present unsatisfactory stage.they might well exclaim, if they are innocent, “ Save us from, our friends.’ Allusion has been made to. Dr Morrison’s “ plain and straightforward statement” which cast -the responsibility for the death of the girl Olsen upon other shoulders while he had the authority to say it shall not bo so and failed to say it, and accused another doctor of causing the death of a boy by treatment of which he did not approve. That “ plain and straightforward statement ” is now 7 partly refuted in anothor column by the boy a

father, and the other doctors concerned in the matter have had no opportunity of being heard. Is it not therefore imperative that a further enquiry shall be hold in order that the blame, if blame there be, sha’l rest upon the right shoulders'? Dnder circumstances such as these it is idlo to talk of “ scandals ” and “ tho tongue of idle rumor ” while there are plain assertions to bo enquired into, and the probability that a “scandal” will ensue if no enquiry be held. Our indp'ment on tho whole matter is in

suspense pending the enquiry, for we recognise the unfairness of condemning a man before he is tiied, and only those who fear the results of .an enquiry will oppose it. “ Let justice be done though the heavens should fall.”