HOSPITAL AND CHARITABLE AID BOARD.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2254, 19 May 1881, Page 3

HOSPITAL AND CHARITABLE AID BOARD.

The ordinary meeting of this Board was , hold on Wedneadoy at 4 p.m. Present—Messrs H. Thomson (chairman), and the Mayor of , Christchurch, The hospital committee reported that daring the past fortnight twenty patients were admitted into the hospital, and twentyseven discharged, leaving fifty-nine patients in the institution. During the same period there were two deaths. For the corresponding period of last year eighty-nine patients were in the institution. The report was adopted. A letter was read from the Government with reference to the employment of disabled men, stating that the General Manager of Railways stated that there were already many cases in which men employed on railways have been disabled, and for whom the department is unable to find work ; but that when an opportunity ocoured one of these men was employed. A letter was read from Dr. W. F. Moore, acknowledging the receipt of a letter notifying his appointment as one of the honorary medical officers to tho Christchurch Hospital. The following correspondence was read : Christchurch District Board of Health. Hereford street east, May 13th, 1881. The Chairman and Members Hospital and Charitable Board. Gentlemen, —I have tho honor, by direction of the Board, to call your attention to the fact that J. W. Wilkinson, who was admitted into tho Hospital and died on April 23rd, and the cause of death being registered diphtheria and croup, has not been reported totha Board, as promised, I have, Ac., Tuos. Gobdoh, Secretary. Tho Hospital, Christchurch, New Zealand, May 18th, 1831. To the Chairman of the Hospital Board. Sir, —A copy of a letter received from the Board of Health, complaining that a case of diphtheria had been admitted to the Hospital and not reported to them, has been placed in’my hands by yonr secretary, Mr March, with a request that I should report to you upon it. I have to inform you that no case of diphtheria has been admitted to the Hospital since my appointment as house-surgeon. The case of J. W. Wilkinson, alluded to by the Board of Health, was one of membranous croup, and was brought to the Hospital by the late Dr. Campbell, in his carriage, for the immediate operation of tracheotomy, which was successfully performed by him, and the urgent danger to the patient of death by suffocation, removed. The child subsequently died from the disease on the third day after admission to the Hospital, and as I had been informed that he had quite recently Buffered from an attack of diphtheria i before his admission to the Hospital, in filling up the certificate of death I stated diphtheria as one of the causes of death, and membranous cronp as the immediate or final cause. Had Dr. Nedwill, instead of making a formal complaint to the Board of Health, asked me for an explanation of the cart fioate of death, I should have been most wiHing to grant it. . I am, &0., A. P. J. Meikle, M.D. The Chairman said it was just this, that ' Dr. Nedwill, living only some hundred yards i from the Hospital, could have obtained the i particulars from the medical officer of the 1 Hospital. No doubt it was done purposely < by Dr. Nedwill, so as to enable him to make a < charge publicly against the medical men on whom he had a grudge, Tho Mayor of Christchurch would like to 1 know whether diphtheria, being stated as one i of the causes of the death, it would not bo 1 taken as the final one. i The Chairman said that the certificate 1 showed the causes of death as follows :—A, i dipththeria ;B, membranous croup. So that i the latter was the final cause. < It was resolved that the letter of Dr, I Meikle be forwarded to the Board of Health. The Chairman called attention to a clause i in the report of the medical officer of health i as to scarlet fever oases. He might say that < in every case the fever cases were isolated, 1 and he saw that the Board of Health had i taken no notice of the paragraph, showing 1 that they very properly ignored Dr. NodwilTs ] recommendation that they should interfere ] with the management of the Hospital. The i Hospital Board had full confidence in their i staff, and were fully convinced that they ( could manage the Hospital without the inter- i ferenoe of Dr. Nedwill or the Board of i Health.- He was, therefore, glad to find that i the Board of Health had treated the para- 1 graph as it deserved, and put it in the waste I paper basket; but it should not have gone ' before the public at all, I A letter was read from the Fatea County 1 Council, asking when William Hudson would 1 be discharged from the Hospital. i It was resolved to reply that Dr, Wilkin i had operated on the left eye with complete tuccess, bat that the patient had to undergo another operation, which would necessitate his remaining in the Hospital for two or three weeks longer. The Secretary reported that the sum of £2 12s 2d was collected in the donation box placed in the long room of the Customs, Lyttelton, towards the recreation fund of the Orphanage, Tho amount has been placed to he credit of that fund.

The following correspondence was road: — Balcairn, May sth, 1881. Sir, —In reply to your letter of the 2nd inst., I bog to state that the case I alluded to at the meeting of the County Council was that of Miss subject to fits, was unable to earn sufficient for subsistence, and had to be supported almost entirely by her neighbors. Considering hers to be a case where charitable aid might reasonably be applied for, I spoke to the Resident Magistrate, who instructed the police to make enquiries and to get the necessary certificate from the Incumbent of the district, to bo forwarded to the Charitable Aid Board. Several weeks elapsed without anything feeing done in the way of assistance. The last time that I made enquiries I was informed —"That no assistance conld be obtained for cases so far from town.” I remarked at the time that it was very strange if such was the case, as I was aware that charitable aid had been given to parties still further from town. By the time this answer was given Mies had left the district, and as I was told had gone to the Hospital, where she subsequently died. Had she remained in the district I should have enquired further into the matter. W. C. Fendall.

J. E. March, Esq. Christchurch, 10th May, 1881. Sir, —I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the sth instant. The case of Miss is one well known to this department. She was first received into the Christchurch Hospital in March, 1880 ; and on her being discharged from that institution as incurable, the Charitable Aid Department paid for her board and lodging until her death. On referring to the papers in this case, I find that the house surgeon of the Christchurch Hospital recommended a rather expensive instrument for this patient, and on his letter being placed before the Board, it was immediately ordered to be procured for her. With this explanation it will be evident to yon that you have been previously misinformed in this case. No one had authority from the Board to state that assistance could not bo obtained for cases so far from town. Had the application been made to the Board direct in the first place, I feel assured that prompt action would have been taken in the matter. Yours, &0., J. E. MabcS. W. C. Fendall, Esq., Balcaim. The Chairman said ho thought that more care should be exercised before people made statements against the Charitable Aid Board. The Board then adjourned.