OTAKI HOSPITAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3042, 29 May 1926, Page 3

OTAKI HOSPITAL.

PROTEST TO MINISTER, SATIS EAC'J'O BY SETTLEMENT HOPED FOR. ‘•I hope that this question will be solved in a way that will lie satisfactory to all concerned,” remarked the Minister of Health (the Hon. J. A. Young) to a deputation which waited on him at Wellington this week to protest against the closing of Otaki Hospital. The Minister said that he was conferring with the Palmerston North Hospital Board on the subject. Mi-. W. IT. Field, M.P., said that Otaki Hospital served the needs of a population of 10,000, but, more recently, the Palmerston North Hospital Board had adopted the policy of trying to close the hospital by starving it. The Otaki people felt that the hospital could be made of more use to the surrounding districts. They objected to the suggestion that people should be moved to Palmerston North for treatment when there was a hospital at their very doors. They expected the Otaki Hospital to be left as a cottage hospital, so that its usefulness might remain unimpaired. Rather than be subject to the treatment they had received from Palmerston N. they would prefer to manage their own affairs. “A RETROGRADE STEP.” Dr. D. S. Milne, of Otaki, read a letter from Dr. R. A. Cameron, of Paraparaumu, pointing out the difficulties of sending patients to Wellington Hospital. Dr. Cameron felt that it would be better to send patients to Otaki Hospital, which was' nearer than Wellington. Hardship would be caused if the Otaki Hospital were closed. Dr. "Milne said that he had no axe to grind so far as the hospital was concerned, because he had a private hospital of his own with which the Otaki Hospital was in competition. However, other doctors, like himself, would naturally prefer to deal with their own patients rather than have them treated by house surgeons in other hospitals.

In reply to the Minister, Dr. Milne said he was not casting any reflection on the house surgeons at Palmerston North, but in a public hospital a medical ease did not receive as careful treatment as he would receive from a private practitioner. He fancied that in public hospitals the treatment of medical eases was relegated amost entirely to house surgeons. With regard to Otaki, the plant was there, and if the hospital were closed it would be a retrograde step, as the district was going ahead. The hospital, if retained, would need certain alterations and improvements, but that would not entail a great deal of expense. They were not aiming at a base hospital, but desired! that ordinary medical and surgical cases could lie treated at Otaki as they had been in the past. In some severe cases, patients would suffer distress by being carried long distances to base hospitals over bad roads. Tie urged that a shelter should be provided at Otaki for Natives suffering from- consumption, of whom there were a large number in the district. Maoris objected to being transferred far away from their friends.

Dr.| S. J. Thompson, of Levin, said that some people in the district complained of the cost of. having to go to Palmerston North. If the Otaki Hospital were kept open it would mean no benefit to practitioners with private hospitals, except where patients had placed themselves under their care. He generally supported Dr. Milne’s re-

marks. DEPARTMENT’S POLICY.

Dr. M. H. AVatt (Assistant Direc-tor-General of Health) stated that the Department’s policy was that the smaller boards should be merged into the larger ones, and that the smaller institutions should carry out only minor treatments. Medical appliances were now so complex that they could not he spread over a large number of small hospitals. He felt that patients would receive better treatment by going to Palmerston North, where there was a base hospital. Mr. Field said he thought it would he an enormity to close the Otaki Hospital, or even to reduce its usefulness. He was sure the hospital woidd pay its way. The point about the shelter for Natives was most important.

In reply, the Minister said that he had discussed the matter with the representatives of the Palmerston North Hospital Board, and it seemed to him that they were prepared to do something for the Otaki district, altogether EOIN N Otaki district, although perhaps not as much as might be desired. He did not think that the Palmerston Board wanted to close the Otaki Hospital entirely. The matter was still under consideration, and would be treated sympathetically, but more on the lines of the policy as indicated by Dr. Watt, fie hoped to be able to persuade the Palmerston North Board to provide something in the nature of a ward, or hospital, at Otaki, to render maternity service at that end of the district, as well as to make N suitable provision for the reception of urgent surgical and medical cases that had to be dealt with on the spot. All other cases would have to be sent to Palmerston North.— Post.