WESTLAND HOSPITAL

Hokitika Guardian, 28 October 1932, Page 4

WESTLAND HOSPITAL

HIGH PRAJSE FROM VISITOR. High praise for the Westland Hospital and its administration wus voiced by Mr George Fitzpatrick, superintendent of the New -South Wales Community Hospital, after a visit of inspection to that institution upon -his return to Hokitika from the glaciers this week. Mr Fitzpatrick has been given a commission by the Government of New South. Vales to study the hospital system throughout the Dominion.

He stated that, in Hokitika, he found what is regarded "in Australia as the ideal public hospital—one where voluntary services are active ; that is, where people take a real -share in the management, and in this respect commented favourably on the action of one member of tile Board who devoted much of his time to voluntary service to the institution.

“Whether it is a good idea," he said “to have two administrative (heads, that is -a medical -superintendent as well as a secretary—which is almost akin to having two captains on one ship—is a matter than can only be judged by the results in individual cases.”

Mr Fitzpatrick was even more generous in his praise of the New Zealand public hospitals than he was on his last vi-'it here. “One looks for a high standard of medicine and surgery m public hospitals so well appointed as those in New Zealand; but surgical skill, medical management and administrative ability are not always synonymous terms,” the said to-day. “Nowhere -el-e have I seen such economy, particularly on the dietetic s*de in the elimination of waste, or greater evidence of efficient public service in "the artificial limbs departments. A department -such as the latter is usually associated with some commercial concern and not with the hospital itself.