PUBLIC OPINION

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 162, 27 July 1937, Page 8

PUBLIC OPINION

SILENT SPEAKEB.

H. It.

, ERENCH.

Mr. . Barnard's Indiscretion (To the Editor.l Sir, — I must congratulate you on tho leading article which appeared in your issue laet night. It is high time that Mr Barnard should be Tcminded of the

high office which he holds, the dignity of which should not be lowered. There is no question but that a report of a Koyal Commission should not be commented upon by the Honourable Speaker of the House .until that report is put upon the table of the House. I don't suppose such a thing has ever occurred in. any of the British Parliament^. I won't say any thing further than that you have performed a public duty in giving the Honourable Member for Napier a rap on the knuckles. — Yours,

etc.,

Hastings, July 27, 1937. The Reactions to the Hospital Commission's Report (To the Editor.) Sir, — Thank you for your service dn reprinting editorial comment throughout the Dominion on the Napier Hospital Commission's report. What I, and probably others, were afraid of has come to pass, though not to the expected extent. The division that has existed in this district on hospital administration has been misjudged, and lay control adversely erit'icised. Under ordinary conditions such misleading conclusions would be unfortunate, but when the whole problem of sickness treatment is under consideration, if no counter-statement is issued, it may seriously affect impending legislation. Because of ' that, 1 addressed a letter to the Commission, pointing out that the feeling that had been engendered in this district was due to the lack of vision on the part of Hospital Deparlment's officers. Their one base hospital idea, instead of recognising that any large centre will rightly demand hospital facilities, Has been the root of the trouble. As for lay control, the cost per occupied bed in tho Napier Hospital has shown for many yeare a measure of super vision equal on the average to any hospital in its class. What the evidence has disclosed is the necessity of greater control on the professional side. The major questaon has yet to be faced — namely, to what extent has the Hospital Department failed in this connection, and what can be done to secure better protection to patients? The ability and integrity of the members of the Commission is above question, yet th-ere was a lack. The members represented the professional view. They stated they had been assisted by departmental officers, though what advice those officers gave was not made public. . The judgment may be held by many laymen that the enquiry should have been pressed to discover just what part those officers play, or should play, in public hospital adminis- '' tration. Had a representative of the general public been included in the Commission, more inight have been said as to the righte of parents to be fully advised as to the illness and treatment of thcigr children when in hospital, nnd of the failure to give accurate informafcion to tbe acting-coroner. — Yours, etc.,

Hastings, July 27, 1937.