The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 1919. THE HOSPITAL DILEMMA.

Taihape Daily Times, 24 January 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 1919. THE HOSPITAL DILEMMA.

(With wnieii is mcorporatwd The Tai" hape Pont t.ad Walestulno Nawffl).

The Wariganui Hospital Board is still squirming under the load they have to carry in effectively providing for the hospital needs of the Taihape district. At the meeting of the Board on Tuesday Mr. Battle tried, by resolution, to get the executive —that is, the committee of the Board whose special duty it is to manage the Taihape affairs—to consider matters in connection with the honorary staff at the Taihape Hospital, with instructions to suggest to the Board such alterations to the by-laws as will put the honorary staff on a satisfactory I footing. He wanted the executive : td go fully into the matter and report the result of their enquiries and deliberations jfco the next meeting of the Board. It is very evident that the conscience of the Board is seriously troubled about the position at Taihape. We would suggest to the members that people interested will be inclined to view that they "swallow the camel then commence straining at a gnat." In a matter of life nad death, at a special meeting in Taihape, the institution was, by a majority of oue. held to be perfectly satisfactory, and a resolution to that effect was published through district newspapers. Now at a matter of some forty ■ pounds charged for 'adihihistcring anaesthetics at the hospital, a tidy, sum by the way, J the Board goes into hysterics, and orj ders an enquiry to be made ahd a re- | port to be submitted. There is the j suspicion that in. saving money the | Board is inclined to be more sensitive i than in saving life; there are many" I people who will naturally persist in j thinking and urging that the life of a 1 girl in motherhood is of infinitely more i importance than a paltry forty pounds , charged for the administration of ani aesthetics iv surgical case? needing . them. Or, perhaps, the resolution proI posed by Mr. Battle is a double-barrel-led instrument, and that it will" shoot | the crow as well as the pigeon. WhatI ever is intended, the public is just ; about unanimous in the opinion that | the Board seriously shirked its duty j by some members being tools of fac- ! tion. The strong feeling shown and i ,the extreme measures taken at the en- ; quiry held in Taihape leave no room j for any other thought. From Mr. Job- ! lin'p explanations' at the Board meet- ' ihg on Tuesday, we must, in public in- : terest, insist upon knowing whether j the Taihape Hospital exists for doctors or for the people. It is monstrous ito suggest that a hospital should be used as a means of exploitation, and if Mr: Joblin made himelf quite clear that is the position in Taiape, and there is ; no hope of improvement, exploitation \ must go on'," for Mr. Joblin urges that j whatever' doctor is in charge the prac- ; tiee will continue. There is evidont.lv j some vVry serious difficulty which the I Board has to set right, but we cannot I believe that it is solely constituted of the forty pounds charged for chloro- ! forming; what else is it that is giving j the Board so much concern? If by any I chance it is something that was dis- : closed at the Taihape enquiry, the \ Board should, in simple honesty, rescind the Taihape resolution. If the whole, question is being re-opened, and the Board is being influenced by what . took place at the enquiry the pub! ; ; are entitled to know how much, and what part, of the evidence is being reconsidered. Our hospitals are the most sacred trust that men can have placed in their hands, end those accepting such a trust should be incapable of permitting faction or any other extraneous consideration to interfere i with their judgment and honesty of . purpose. Mr. Joblin thinks it is best to "take the bull by the horns'i' in an endeavour to get over the present difficulty. We eerfainly agree with Mr. Joblin although he does not initiate us into the secret of what the 'bull" or the difficulty really consists of. We cannot believe such a "bull" or difficulty'is alone what arises from the bill for administering anaesthetics. Mr.

Battle's mind was evidently troubled at the Taibape enquiry when he proposed a similar resolution to that he submitted to the meeting at Wanganul on Tuesday, and it is plain that it was something that was disclosed at the Taihape enquiry that prompted his action. It is also perfectly clear that "The Board did not realise the illogical situation it was drifting into by adopting Mr. Battle's proposal for an executive enquiry. If the full Board found that complaints made at Taihape were unproved and unfounded, everything at th 6 hospital was decreed to bo beyond suspicion, we do not say it was not, iftrt oh earth set up

! an executive enquiry to go into mat- ' ters that arose at the Board's enquiry, and why set up an irresponsible committee of Taihape residents who woulu have no status in law beyond telling the Hospital Board what they thought was best in the institution's interests; j their status would be about that of an ordinary private individual. If a thoroughly capable business comm that is qualified to collect and collate evidence and figures is set up, then., we know that some good would result, for such a committee would undoubtedly urge the public to "take the bull by the horns," and determinedly ap- ! proach the Government to have Taihape made a separate hospital district. 1 There are men on the Board whose actions are prompted by the very highest motives; they are anxious to have the Taihape institution brought to the state it should be in, but they realise that an executive whose members live in other centres, from forty to sixty ' miles distant, cannot give that si I vision that is essential to success | Members feel they are in a false posi--1 tion, consequently they are ready to accept any other proposal that might or might Jnot improve matters, but , which, at least, would relieve them of a responsibility that should never have been placed upon them. Instead cf taking the open way out of the Taihape difficulty, members of the Board are endeavouring to flounder out in by-ways. Taihape peophTare told that if they do not take sufficient interest to appoint people to look after their hospital they should suffer, ahd it was ridiculous 'for them to cast aspersions on the Board. The degree of applicaI tion to the case of such a statement is difficult, to see. The Wanganui Hospital Board are the controllers of the Taihape Hospital and as Taihape people do not elect that Board, their lack of interest doesnj't affect the case. The hospital enigma is being gradually solved, and if the Board will talk long enough it will probably disclose the psychological discrepancies which i caused it to resolve that every complaint was unfounded and unproved and then directly set up an executive enquiry to have hospital matters put in a satisfactory condition. The forty pounds for anaesthetic administrations is only a bit of red-herring, o