SUNLIGHT CURE

Hokitika Guardian, 12 April 1929, Page 5

SUNLIGHT CURE

FOR CRIPPLED CHILDREN

VICTORIA'S £90,000 SCHEAIE,

SYDNEA r , April 4. .In view of the controversy among doctors in Britain, it is of interest to note that one of the best equipped hospitals in Australia for treatment with sunlight and artificial rays is a branch of the Alelbourne Children’s Hospital nearly completed on the seafront at Frankston at a cost of £9O, 000. It will cost £14,000 a year to run. It will be able to treat nearly all the child cripples in AHctoria by helio-therapy, hydro- therapy, and ultra-violet rays. Helio-herapy. or sunlight treatment, was begun at the Children’s Hospital

in Alelbourne in 1922. Bone diseases were treated on the balconies. The demand for the treatment increased to such an extent that new quarters

had to be provided. The success of the treatment continued when the patients were transferred to a more suitable locality, and the hospital authorities reported that within the first twelve months many chronic tuberculosis and paralysis cases, who had been in splints for three of four years, were walking. Although the maximum age for entry into me Children’s Hospital is 14 years, for orthopaedic cases the limit has been increased to 16 years, , The

new hospital has room for 100 patients, and there is space for considerable expansion as soon as funds will permit. Provision is being made for charity cases only, but if necessary it could be converted into a full community hospital. The question is being asked whether it is fair to deprive the children of the wealthy and the- others who do not need charity of the benefits of such a modern, up-to-date institution winch promises to do such a vast amount of good. It is pointed out that the diseases that are to be treated are by no means confined to the children of the poor. But this point raised the whole question of hospital administration—a question facing New Zealand just as much as Australia, and a satisfactory solution of the difficulties seems to be as far off as ever. All the treatment at this new Afelbourne hospital will be given under one roof. In a special operating block, with a post-operating ward, all patients after operating can recover sufficiently before going among the other patients again. There is an X-ray department, laboratories, and modern equipment generally. There is a State school on

tiie property for elementary education, and boys will he taught the rudiments of some craft, and the girls domestic science. Another department is for physic-therapy, or massage and re education of joints and ntuscles for cases such as infantile paralysis. There will also he a hydro-therapy department in which is a shallow bath of. sea water, which will be irrigated over the child with small pipes as he lays in the bath. Artificial rays will give sun treatment when the weather is dull.