HOSPITAL AND CHARITABLE AID BOARD.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1994, 15 July 1880, Page 4

HOSPITAL AND CHARITABLE AID BOARD.

The fortnightly meeting of the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board was held at 4 p.m. Present—Mr H. Thomson (chairman), Dr. Turnbull, the Mayor of Sydenham and the Mayor of Christchurch. The hospital committee reported that during the past fortnight nineteen patients had been admitted and seventeen discharged, leaving fifty-eight patients in the institution. Four deaths had occurred daring the same period. The committee reported upon certain reductions in the nursing staff which had been effected by tho committee, taking effect on the 31st July. A letter was road from the Government, stating that, in compliance with a request, the Government printer had been instructed to forward a Government “ Gazette ” to tho Hospital and Charitable Aid Board. The Mayor of Christchurch said that he had seen a report that one of the inmates of the Ashburton Home had been brought up before tho Magistrate and had been sent back to the Home. He thought that before such a step as this was taken they, as a Board, should know something of the matter. The Chairman said he had noticed tho case. The man had been dismissed, and taken up as a vagrant hero. The magistrate sent for Mr March, and ho said he would take tho man back. He thought Mr March should have brought the matter before tho Board, us it was scarcely the thing when a Board was in existence for an officer to take upon himself the responsibility of taking back a man after ho had been dismissed.

The Mayor of Christchurch and Dr. Turnbull agreed with the chairman. A letter was read from the Board of Health, forwarding a copy of the report of tho health officer. The Chairman said there was no doubt that ar. irregularity had occurred, and instructions had now been given to report all cases of fever, wherever they came from. So far as ho could see, that was all the Board could do. The Mayor of Sydenham said that it was necessary that some steps should be taken to sot the public mind at rest. The Chairman said that there was no diagnosis of persons when they came in. They were entered in the books just what they gave. The Mayor of Sydenham said that the cause of death was entered by their officer as gastro-enteritis, whereas the health officer declared that the cause of death in the two oases referred to was typhoid fever. Dr. Turnbull said that the entry gastroenteritis only gave the immediate cause of death, but did not say that it resulted from typhoid. The Chairman said he thought that Mr KeeMey, or the doctor who attended Mrs Keetley, should have given notice before the case reached the Board. Dr. Turnbull pointed out that the Act did not provide for subsequent cases being reported, after a household had been reported once. This house was a perfect nest of fever, and reports had been made of it frequently. The Mayor of Christchurch said it appeared to him that this was simply a difference of opinion between medical men. One said that it was typhoid fever, another said it was not. How was it possible for a lay Board to decide who was right ? The Chairman thought that it was necessary to send a reply. The Mayor of Christchurch said he thought the whole trouble in this matter had arisen through the dispenser, or anyone who admitted a patient, being authorised to put down in his book any entry as to the disease that ho thought proper. Ho would move—- “ That the chairman and Dr, Turnbull draft a letter to the Local Board of Health.” The Mayor of Sydenham thought that it was a case in which the professional ability of their officer was questioned, and further than this, that they, as a Board, were setting themselves against the Local Board of Health, Dr. Turnbull was of opinion that there was something more behind the giving of the certificate than they could reach. ggjTho Chairman thought that the answer to be sent to the Local Board of Health should point out that in future all cases of fever would be reported to the Board of Health. The Mayor of Christchurch pointed out that it was necessary that they should also bo informed that in future the entry of the cause of illness should not be entered up until the diagnosis had been made. Dr, Turnbull said that this was very necessary, and it might bo shown to the Local Board of Health that the diagnosis of the ease would in all oases be put on the card by the visiting surgeon. The Mayor of Sydenham seconded tho motion, which was carried. The Mayor of Christchurch said that he bad received a report of a cose of scarlotina in the G-asworks road, Sydenham. It was resolved to report tho case to tho Board of Health. The Board then adjourned.