Ailments and Treatment

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 428, 9 August 1928, Page 8

Ailments and Treatment

Surgeon’s Knife More Popular

ALTHOUGH the record of sickness and disease in Xeiv Zealand shows a substantial increase over a period of years, figures prepared by the Government indicate that greater efficiency in the treatment of illness has produced a higher percentage of cures. One person in 20 in the Dominion was treated in a public hospital last year, and it is estimated that if private hospitals and home eases were included, one in ten would be found to have been medically attended.

A number of decidedly interesting —and some disturbing—tendencies are revealed in the figures compiled by the Government Statistician, who shows the record of hospital cases in the light of a human document rather than as a dull table of uninspiring numerals. It is not claimed to cover the whole field of sickness, for many ailments are such that the assistance of a medical practitioner is not required. There is a public hospital for every 13,000 people in New Zealand, the 109 institutions embracing 93 general hospitals, eight sanatoria for consumptives, four special hospitals for infec-

tious diseases, and five maternity hospitals. Purely maternity hospitals are not included in this compilation. Strangely enough, the South Island, although possessing barely more than half the population of the North, requires 59 hospitals, or one to every 8,913 people, for the care of its sick, while the North Island maintains 50 hospitals, or one to every 18,484 persons. The patients treated in these institutions, however, are necessarily greater in numbers in the North than those in the South, 47,000 passing through the northern institutions, and 25,605 through those across the Straits. DEATH RATE REDUCED Sickness is increasing in the community, and whereas six years ago nearly 400 people in 10,000 were admitted for hospital treatment, at the present time over 500 people in 10,000 are listed as patients. This is approximateiy one in 20 over the whole

population, but it is estimated by the Government Statistician that if all figures were available, one person in every ten throughout the Dominion would be revealed as having been medically treated. A careful study of the situation shows little movement in the proportion of deaths during the past few years, though there is distinct evidence of a downward tendency, the patients who died representing approximately 5.20 per cent, of those treated. Recovering patients increase every year, and it is logical and just to attribute much of the credit for this to the better facilities for treatment provided at the public hospitals throughout the country. It is almost startling to realise how popular has become the surgeon's knife in recent times. A few years ago the operation was regarded as abhorrent, but to-day the least persuasion is sufficient to convince the patient of the benefits to be achieved from the use of surgery. Since 1925 medical operations have increased by nearly 4,000, over 28,000 being performed last year. Of the 3,782 patients who died in hospital last year, 839 were shown to have been operated upon. SURGEON’S KNIFE POPULAR

True, the great bulk of the operations were for complaints of a minor character, but of these 839 people who died after operations, 173, or 21 per cent., had been operated on for cancer, and 70 for appendicitis, thus showing a high death-rate among these prevalent complaints. Cancer, indeed, has increased from 994 cases in 1922 to over 1,500 last year, and tuberculosis has risen steadily every year from under the 1,000 mark in 1922 to nearly 2,500 last year. Scarlet fever was higher in 1927 than at any time during the past six years, although diphtheria, which hitherto had occupied a high place on the list, has dropped to comparative insignificance. Seasonal complaints, with their dangerous complications, oscillate with great frequency, influenza, pneumonia and bronchitis rising and falling with epidemic waves. Unquestionably the most striking increase of all is that of tonsils and adenoids, children’s ailments which, although easily removable by a slight operation, are quite distressing to infantile health. In the past six years 28,728 cases of this character were treated, a steady annual rise, and the particularly high figures for 1927 provoking special comment from the authorities. Part of the blame for fractures and dislocations must be attributed to the increase in motor-cars and the greater popularity of football. Many of the more objectionable classes of diseases show alarming tendencies to increase, but the establishment of improvement in methods of treatment has produced the effect of regulating their course, and bringing them within the bounds of proper and efficient control.