TUBERCULOSIS

Hokitika Guardian, 24 August 1932, Page 2

TUBERCULOSIS

• DENIAL '.OF APATHY

PREVENTIVE MEASURES AND

AFTER-CARE.

; fiHRISTOHURGH, August 23. ri- The Hospital Boards of the South ■lsland, 7 a,nd particularly the North Canterbury Hospital Board, aie not open to?tbe charge of apathy toAvard the problem of tuberculosis laid by Dr. G. Mac Lean, .medical supervisor of the Pareora Sanatorium, accoiding to Mr H. J. Qtley, the chairman of the North. Canterbury Hospital Board. Mr OtleSoSaid; the charge might possiljly,iba made agahist some of the Ndrth Island Boards, but the position here was that every .care Avas taken, and thp Bpards Averted - well together. His: views were supported by Dr. I. O ' medical supervisor at the- .Qpshmere Sanatorium. . .

At the outset it had t-o be rememI ered that the system of organisation was totally- different from that Avh ch tkiT'sed Dr. Mac Lean’s criCcism. In the North. Island there Avere two Gov-, ornmeiit sanatoria, one at Otaki, theother at. pukcora, to which the Hospital Boards could send tuberculosis patients, • blit in the South . Island there .Aveii'e rid Government sanatoiia. and 'consequently there, could be no conflict of interest. The North Canterbury Board, for example,, ritain*tained its sanatoria to caffe for tuberculosis patients from-the .Whole cf the .northern part of the Island. The six other Boards in that area sent their patients to Christchurch, and paid the coat of their treatment here.

CO-OPERATION OF. BOARDS

The 00-ciperation wem.fi further than this, however.' The medical superintendent made a tour of ,thfe whole area every two-months or so,, arid in each Board’s district be. inspected any patients that might be sent to him for examination.,.by local' doctor® and by the local .hosp.tal—conducting a sort of out-patients’ departnient—to determine. whfethep they,,, could ,be treated there,., or needled to be sent to the sanatorium. Three. of the Boards maintained, a part-time nurse to assist in the .Avprk. . .. w/, •.

This enabled continual contact, to .be mairitaih'ed throughout the whole area', t and at the same time saved these | smaller .Boards the expertise of maintheir oavh sanatoria for the few patients that .might need special care.. It was .practically as costly to. prqyid-e am institutibri to look -after two.patients a.s to carejfpr.w score... .Further south, the Waipiata Sanatorium existed to do similar work for an area reaching as far south as Invercargill, . while the Dunedin Board had institutions at ■\yaikari. and. Palmerstpp-.‘South. ~ • The system here Avas planned to give the' fuillest.. ( pppori;um.ty.(lop preliminary investigation, and for .after ctti'e, .- ,aa u'dl ns for the treatment of tljd patients at the sfthatonum, At. Its tuberculosis dispensary' m Armagh street'the Board had for many years provided a centre to which 'those in need of advice, Or those who Avere not sure whether they had the disease or riot, could go,, for. Here also discharged patients wtent, so that their,condition might he watched, and any relapse in their condition checked either by treatment there, or by readmission to the sanatorium.

THE WOOftK BEING DONE

,At the dispensary on© or other of the-' two doctors from the sanatorium attended once week, so that anyone wishing to see an expert could always do r,o. '’ A nurse was attached to the dispensary, and she visited the patients. or people who were under observation', in their own homes. In addition,"there was the children’s freshair home, where the patients were not consumptive, but were contacts. The success of the work being done was shown by the fact that the Board had found it possible to close the Upper Sanatorium, which had been erected to care for tuberculosis soldier patients. This meant—as there was ample accommodation in the' two other paris '"of the sanatorium—that tho position was now back to what it had been before provision had had to be yfiade for the soldiers'. The latest figures (prepared this" week) set the number of patients as follows:

Men. Women. Total

CHECKING THE DISEASE.

Taking the figures for the Middle Sanatorium and the Upper Sanatorium, for the year ended on March 31st. last, it appeared that the disease bad beei] arrested in the of 54 patients out of 65, who had been admitted suffering from early stages of tuberculosis, and in 30 cases out of 36, who had been admitted suffering from a moderate staffe." At the Dispensary 750 persons (717 civilians and 23 .soldiers) had attended.- The total civilian attendances had been 1755, erd of these 257 were new enses, 75 being those new patients who were found to be suffering front tuberculosis (94 in 1930). The •number of . persons under observation was 480, most of these having passed .through the; tuberculosis institutions. Though the expenditure of tho sanatoria was naturally great—in 1931 .it was £23,238—a fairly large sum was spent in addition on the dispensary and on the fresh-air home, the first of which was of the nature of a n,reventivte and after-card institution while tho second vas entirely preventive. Tho cost last year had been £I6OO for

Corocation ... 51 39 90 Middle* . . ... 32 51 83 Totals ,.. 83 90 173