More T.B. Cases Than Others

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 42, 19 February 1937, Page 6

More T.B. Cases Than Others

SOUTHLAND HOSPITAL BOARD CHAIRMAN WORRIED Per Press Association. INVERCARGILL, Last Night. Alarm at the number of tubercular patients in Southland was expressed by the chairman (Mr. T. Golden) at the monthly meeting of the Southland Hospital Board to-day. It was stated that at present there were 60 Southland patients in Waipiata sanatorium, more than half of the total number the insti tution was supposed to hold. ‘ 1 The time has come,'' said the chairman, “when we need an institution for the treatment of tubercular cases too far advanced for admission to Waipiata. At present little or no provision is made for those patients but if any headway is to be made in checking the spread of the disease, early steps will have to be taken to segregate these sufferers. A comparison with the Wallace district shows Southland in even a worse light," the chairman continued. “They have the same typo of people as us living under the same conditions yet the number of Wallace patients i» Waipiata is very small. It is up to the Health Department to mako a thorough investigation into conditions in »Sotithlaud to ascertain, if possible, why tuberculosis is so rife here. If any other Hospital Board district had as many patients as Southland, Waipiata would be swamped by the numbers seeking admission. As it is we are only entitled to have 36 patients in the institution."

The secretary (Mr. T. Pryde) said that New Zealand had the lowest death rate in the world from tuberculosis. “And Dr. McKibbin, medical officer of health at Dunedin, has suggested," ho added, “that Southland’s big proportion of tubercular patients can probably be attributed m some measure to the energy of its medical superintendent who has patients admitted to the sanatorium beforo the disease is far advanced."