Auckland Hospital Inquiry.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, 7 March 1891, Page 2

Auckland Hospital Inquiry.

COMMISSIONER'S BEPORT. The Commissioners find that the patient Berry died of hennorrage and state when the means adopted for stopping the bleeding by pressure of two corks on the main arteries and tight bandages proved ineffective recourse ought to have been at once . had to more effective measures of controlling the hwrmorrhage and that the extent of the surgical shock under which the patient was suffering was over estimated and not so severe as to render it necessary to postpone amputation for some 12 hours. In reference to the charge respecting McKenzie's death the Commissioners say Dr Collins' contention that in this case also the existance of surgical shock prohibited the immediate removal of the limb, they consider untenable. Assuming his view of the case to be the correct one, this in their opinion rendered it the more imperative on him to proceed more speedily to the amputation ot the limb. Dr Collins' allegation that he deemed it advisable to refrain from earlier amputation because he expected by conservative surgery to save the limb they consider to be ill-judged. They are ot ! opinion that such a serious wound as , McKenzie's was not so fully and sur- ■ gically examined and dressed immediately on admission to the Hospital , as it ought to have been, and that 19 hours ought not to have been ' allowed to elapse before a thorough > examination of the wound, and which | should have been freshly dressed. j The bad smell arising from the wound in McKenzie's leg may not : necessarily have been an indicative 1 of the setting in of gangrene, but j may have been attributable to an ac--1 cumulation of decomposing pus in the wound, which ought to have been attended to oftener than once ' in 24 hours ; that in case of such a serious wound Dr Collins ought not to have waited 8 or 9 days before calling in the consulting surgeons. . They considered nurse Arnaboldi mistaken about gangrene having set i in when the wound was bandaged up though it did to fatal extent three I days later. The Commissioners rei fer to the retirement of nearly all the medical practitioners of Aucki land from attendance upon patients at the Hospital, but considered they ■ were not in any wise warranted by the terms of the Commission in inquiring into the cause. They, however, deplore the fact. The question of costs is left for the Government to decide. Dr Mirbach, in addendum considers Dr Collins the victim of unskillul and inadequate administration ; he submits that the system of management of Hospitals now prevailing in the colony might well be reconsidered in the direction of removing them from the exclusive control of elected Boards.