REDUCING MORTALITY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 716, 16 July 1929, Page 18

REDUCING MORTALITY

INSPECTOR ON MATERNITY HOSPITALS THREE BEST METHODS Press Association WELLINGTON, Monday. In a report to the Director-General of Health, Dr. T. H. A. Valintine, the Inspector of Private Hospitals, Dr. T. L. Paget, reviews the present position and the past year’s work in maternity hospitals and ante-natal clinics. He states that the 371 institutions in this Department of Public Health have, on the whole, been maintained in a satisfactory condition. These hospitals consist of seven St. Helens Hospitals, 59 public maternity hospitals or maternity wards attached to hospitals, 95 private medical and surgical hospitals, 45 mixed medical, surgical and maternity hospitals and 167 private maternity hospitals. No fewer than 26 licensed hospitals were voluntarily closed, some because they were superfluous or, for other reasons, did not meet with sufficient support, and some because they were not being conducted satisfactorily. Dr. Paget says he is convinced that the problem of reducing maternal mortality can best be solved by three principal methods: (1) By the universal acceptance by women of the necessity for skilled and systematic ante-natal care; (2) By the general application of the principles of aseptic surgery in the practice of obstetrics, both in and out of hospitals: and (3) By the provision of small wellequipped maternity hospitals so located as to be available to all patients, particularly when home conditions are pot suitable for patients during confinement and in cases where the indications point to a serious departure from normal.