MATERNITY HOSPITALS

Hokitika Guardian, 20 November 1924, Page 4

MATERNITY HOSPITALS

EFFECT OF REGULATIONS. SOME IXSTfTFTIOXS CLOSE. j Four maternity hospitals, representing 20 beds, have eloseil in the Auckland district since the applicate the stricter regulations made by the Health Department, following upon the Kelvin inquiry (says the ••Herald”). The licensees of three of these, providing accommodation lor Pi patients, said lliev could not carry out certain regulations. The fourth closed because not enough eases were offering. .Meanwhile, three new hospitals have been licensed to take 10 patients. The final result is. therefore that: there are Id beds less for maternity eases in the provide. The city aoi| nihttth. lone lost ihicc hospitals of II boils, and gained one of llireo beds, the country, where the problem of maternity noooinUioilalion is often acute, lias lost one hospital of six boils and gained two of seven beds.

A itstricter regulation is Slit* st.-iloil eaiiso (if tlio closing nf three lies, pi tills, il is pussihle Unit economic pressure, lack of patronage in other words, may have hoc u a factor in the decision. That is frankly admitted in the fourth ease. And it is known that, as a result of the publicity given to the poor equipment in many hospitals, and the. advice of authorities, many women | have latelv preferred confinement in their own home. They think it safer. I.KKS lIISK IX OWN HOME. j The conclusion is supported hv .nodical opinion which declares that, unless a hospital is properly equipped, for 'he efficient practice of asceptic principles, the patient runs less risk of septicaemia in her own home. The support that Or Trilby Kino and others have ;;iven this view has probably influenced

- many cases in choosing their own home for confinement. Maternity hospitals must have suffered hy diminished patronage. The chief direction in which the Health Department has moved for improvement has hcett in structural alterations, especially in rotat'd to sink room and sanitary arrangements. It has Generally heon the tightening up of these regulations that has caused a licensee to abandon her hospital. Not so much objection has been taken to the requirement that there should he one registered midwife to every four

patients, instead of six, as formerly. Commenting on the elfect of th" new regulations, the medical officer of Health, Dr T. .1. Hughes, stated that generally they had assisted the department- in keeping a linger on the pulse in maternal matters. The additional medical officer had facilitated the work of personal investigation of each ease . of sepsis. Moreover, notification was

much improved, and the keeping of records at. hospitals. .Morbidity had now to ho notified, that is, when tho temperature of a patient rose to lftf) decrees Fahrenheit on any three days of the puerperium. Complete records of each ease were now kept, and each month licensees were required to fill in a form, giving full details, under a number of special headings. Ctenerally

the department was kept much belter informed than previously. TilK STATISTICAL POSITION. II is doubtful whether statistics over a short period have any value in attempting; to decide whether stricter supervision and better stallin';, notification and equipment, are going to have the desired effect bv reducing the rate of maternal mortality. In the six months since the regulations were framed there have been cases of puerperal septicaemia and tour deaths in the Auckland district. This probably compares favourably

with previous periods, htd the figures have to lie taken with the reservation that eases of puerperal lever due to abortion or miscarriage are now return- , ed separately. Such cases are by no ] means rare, and are considerable eon- i tributors to the total returned as puer- 7 peral fever. Hut generally it may be r taken that the much stricter regulations introduced since last June should

assist materially in tlie* department s effort to reduce the hiscli rate of mortality which has in the past heeii a re- ’’ proach in the Department’s health record.