DR. VAUNTINE ACCUSED

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 359, 21 May 1928, Page 8

DR. VAUNTINE ACCUSED

TREATMENT OF T.B PATIENTS DR. BLACKMORE OUTSPOKEN (Special to THE SUN) CHRISTCHURCH, s undiy “For some time the Diree*. Genera! of Health has been to interfere with the treatminV"? patients here and at Waipiate. “Xot long ago he went private!. . members of the Hospital Board — th at means not to the board in'eS! meeting-and said I was keeping ents too long under treatment, that if 1 did not do so, there wouS be ample accommodation for the cnn sumptives who wished to come in" ’ This was part of a statement by Dr. G. J. Rlackmore. director ef tuberculosis institutions in North Can terbury. regarding the official an r.ouncenient of an inquiry into thl treatment of consumption. ‘A\ hen I spoke to members of par liament last week.” said Dr. Blacmore, ‘I said the Health Department wat appointing a commission to trv to discredit the work that had been done, and was being done, in the South Island, and the commission meant that specialists in the South Island were being put on their trial by the department. I know it was said I was mistaken, but I was speaking with n little inside knowledge as to the causes tha* brought about this commission. “You notice by what the Minister of Health has said that the commissior. is to find out whether consumptives are being properly diagnosed; whether they are being properly treated; and whether they are being kept under treatment too long. I think it win be found a little difficult now to contradict statements 1 made to the members of Parliament as to the real objects of the commission. “There is now no talk of the commission formulating a policy to deal with tuberculosis in New Zealand/’ continued Dr. Blackmore, “or even to try to find out new facts about the disease. If the experts are not to be the ones to decide about the diagnosis and treatment of consumptives, who then is to decide? Is the Health Department to put forward a scheme for diagnosing and treating consumptives that is to be followed by men whc have had special training in this work and have for years been devoting their whole time to dealing with tuberculosis?” _______________