CONSUMPTION.
t'Aill' LIFE AND HIKE I'LAXTING. WOliK FOli TIIK ( I'liKD AM) I>.\l!T| ALLI (Jt: UEJ).
The ]lun. 1). Buddo, .Minister of Public Health, intends in the course of a few weeks to visit the Consumption ium at " Te Waikato,'' near Cambridge, also the Karere camp lor '* cured " consumptive patients, near Kotorua. The -Minister is favourable to the scheme of providing outdoor work in suitable localities for "cured" expatients of consumption hospitals. It U probable that his visit to the north will result in the Government making turther provision for the outdoor employment of persons who have suffered from tuberculosis. At present there are twelve ex-patients at the Karere camp, and they are employed at tree-planting aiul the removal of scrub. The men arc paid ordinary wages fur the work they do, by the Lands Department. Some of the men have done very well, and have improved so much in health that they have left the camp ana taken up ordinary work hi other districts.
Jlany advantages iire claimed for the development of the camp system. Jt will relievo the congestion of the eonsumption hospitals, will provide healthy occupation for the cured and partially cured, and will give many unfortunate sutl'erers' a new start in life, under the most 1 avourable cunditio:is. Hitherto the discharged patient was in this awkward position : that he found it almost impossible to get work. Xo one would give him a job. The titate now says.;' M\ e will give yon an opportunitv of earning an livelihood;' It is contended that the tree-planting camps will be a profitable investment to the Mule, because the men will no longer be a burden 011 the country, out will be able in many cases to keep tliemselve*. while areas of what is now barren land will give a profitable yield of timber. When the new system has been a little longer in working order, and its benefits become wider known, it is expected that large numbers of sufferers of tubercular disease* will avail themselves of the opportunity of engaging in outdoor work under these conditions, instead of going back to their indoor employment, with its attendant danger of a relapse. I his *y.*teni o) outdoor employment is regarded as one of tue most important important features of the campaign against tuberculosis. The camp at Rarere i* in charge of a trained nurse. and the health of the workers is attended to when necessary by a jnedical oflicer of the Health Department. The authorities contemplate establishing a consumption sanatorium near 1-airlie. inland from Tiinaru. A conference on the subject between the South Canterbury ami Ashburton Hospital Board will shortly be aelrt at Ttmaru. STATEMENT BY THE MIXISTKIt.
Alluding to the employment of expatients of consumption sanatoria in tree-planting, the Hon. D. Jluddo, Minister for Public Health, expressed to a Dominion reporter Ins thorough approval of the system.
" Every city or borough of anything like substantial population." lie remark- | ed, "has now made provision for the | proper treatment of consumption patients, with the exception of Duncdin. and that city has now this subject un- ! der consideration. It is generally i tbought-and, personally, J am hopeful 1 -that a sanitorium for Dunedin will ' shortly be in course of erection. It is my intention to make as public as pos r j sible the danger to the public of having ' consumptive patients living among the I healthy—T refer to patients who are not under medical supervision. The whole history of pulmonary consumption shows that infection is easily spread j through a family. As a matter ol fact. I t scarcely consider tuberculosis in any ! any oilier form to be a serious danger. The Health Department has now a free hand to impress upon all local authorities the absolute necessity for dealing at once with persons sintering from pulmonary consumption, as then* is no longer any question of inflicting hardship on the poor sufferers, "who were previously often driven from pillar to post;, there being no place to accommodate them. As a matter of fact. J have known a serious and advanced case having to be housed in an old building, or in a tent erected in a sheltered place—there being no hospital or other suitable accommodation available.
•"The main point in connection with out-door employment of patients—either convalescents or •'cured'—is 'that sueli
i-ascs are still under the supervision of the Health Department. As a matter of fact, the whole of the work done at the Cambridge Sanatorium and the treeplanting camp at Karerc is intended as a general experiment, the result of which will be communicated to all the local bodies in the Dominion which are interested in the work, and which have sanatoria for treating consumptive patients. F may state that the latest advices received from England show that the authorities there now recognise the advantage, indeed the necessity, for employing convalescent patients in light work in the open air. and they are -putting the system into practice/'
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Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 15, 11 February 1909, Page 4
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826CONSUMPTION. Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 15, 11 February 1909, Page 4
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