The treatment of T. B.

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 58, 31 May 1927, Page 9

The treatment of T. B.

Are the Epsom Shelters Adequate for Auckland 5 s Needs?

EX-PATIENT JOINS IN CONTROVERSY

Written for THE SUN by Ex-Patient. 'THE statement made by the Hospital Board chairman having reference to the treatment of T.B. in Auckland, shows, to my mind, that either Mr. Wallace is not fully conversant with the subject, or that he has (perhaps unwittingly) been misled by his advisers. Mr. Wallace is reported (inter alia),

to have said that the treatment of T.B. in Auckland is good and sufficient, and also, that while he does not consider a sanatorium in the Auckland district necessary, he is of opinion that if such an institution is required, it should be provided at the joint expense of all the hospital boards north of Taumarunui. I have had experience of the treatment at the Cambridge and Waipukurau Sanatoria, and also at the men’s shelters which are erected on the grounds of the Costley Home at Epsom. A POOR SITE These shelters (nine in number) are erected on what I consider is the most unsuitable portion of the grounds. While an excellent site could have been utilised at the rear end of the grounds, the shelters were erected on the lowlying, fiat portion of the area, and in close proximity to the boiler-room, the steam laundry, and the lavatories of the old men’s home. The medical attention is confined to the part-time of Dr. McKelvey, who has a multitude of other duties to perform. The doctor passes through the shelters twice daily, taking about 15 minutes to do the nine shelters. Each month the patients are examined individually, and notes are made of their respective conditions. These examinations are made on Sunday mornings, as apparently the medical officer has no other time available during the month. There is room for 36 patients and the monthly examinations take not more than five hours. This means that each patient gets, in a month, aboLit 10 minutes of the doctor’s time. Compare this position with that obtaining at Waipukurau, where two medical men are engaged for full time on from 70 to SO patients. One doctor there is examining continuously and sometimes takes from three weeks to a month to do the examinations required. HOW TO LIVE At the sanatorium the patients are taught “how to live”—in other words, they are instructed in the latest methods of combating the disease and preventing its spread to other persons. This work is done by the doctors, who give regular lectures, which are often

illustrated by lantern slides. In these the patients are taught how to eat. drink, rest and sleep properly and sufficiently—how to deal with sputum and nasal discharges, and even how to walk and take proper exercise. Two daily “rest hours” are compulsory, during which patients must lie down and not exert themselves so much even as to read a paper or book. And what of the Epsom shelters —no time there for lectures or even simple instructions, so that if a patient is lucky enough to get out (alive) he is quite as ignorant of the methods necessary to combat the disease as is the man in the street. Neither are there any regular rest hours. Again, as to walking exercises. The patients at the sanatorium who are on “walks” are supervised, and many a time have I seen a doctor suddenly arrive from “nowhere” and check the men’s walks—and he who is found to be either ex-

I ceeding the allotted distance, or not 1 walking far enough, is sure to be “carpeted” before the medical superintendent the next day. Bjit at Epsom I cannot recall one instance where I have either seen or heard of the medical officer checking the walks on One Tree Hill. POOR BELL SERVICES At the sanatorium each bed is provided with a bell for immediate use day or night if required, and each bell press has a corresponding number on an announcing board in the duty room, so that the attendant can go to the patient instantly in answer to a ring. The position at Epsom Is that there is no means of any kind for calling a nurse during the day. Bells are certainly provided for night use, but if these are used they ring in the duty room -of the women’s shelters, some chains away. There is nothing to indicate which shelter the ring comes from, and the night nurse may have to go through eight shelters before she discovers the source of the ring. Such lack of adequate means of calling assistance is dangerous, more especially in case of a haemmorrhage, as many a man has bled to death in two minutes, which is a much shorter time than it takes to go through eight shelters. IN CONCLUSION— Will Mr. Wallace, in face of the foregoing remarks, still say that the treatment at Epsom is good? I would recommend him and any members of the board who wish to be enlightened to visit the patients more often than they now do. They would then perhaps discover that the treatment is very inferior. If two doctors are required for full time in looking after 70 to SO patients at Pukeora, it must be apparent that the Epsom patients are not properly provided for by the part-time of one doctor. To conclude this article I might say that I have refrained from going into minor details, but these can be supplied later if necessary. Let the Auckland Hospital Board first see to the proper comfort and nursing of the patients at Epsom, and then lose no time in fostering a proposition to build an up-to-date sanatorium for the Auckland district.

Recently THE SUN advocated, editorially, better provision in Auckland for the treatment of tuberculosis. In the following article, contributed by an cxpatient at the Epsom Shelters, additional is adduced of the need of more adequate facilities for coping with a dread scourge. i