The Daily News. SATURDAY, JUNE 4. PUBLIC HEALTH.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 47, 4 June 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, JUNE 4. PUBLIC HEALTH.

An item in our cable columns lately stated that inspectors were to be appointed in London to visit lodofo*. houses and see to it that the occupants washed themselves as well as their clothes. There are many people vvho do not live in lodging-houses who would be a great deal better for a liberal use of water and .soap. It i Sj of course, ,„ the interests of public .health that this fa 'being done and more proposed to b« done. If the State is to enforce that primary J aw of health-cleanliness-vvhy not other laws of healths well? Wnv not see to it that every-one-lod,er or not-hae a sufficiency of fresh air and ight working or sleeping? As a matter of fact, every civilised country does jnore or less, take the matter of public' health under its care; and who shall say that it has not done much good in thi, direction already, but also that it could well do a great deal more ? We hear the cry: An army or inspectors! Yes if need ibe, to teach and encourage and in the end, if mild measures fail, to compel the ignorant and the careless to live UJ> to the standard of the intelligent and careful citizens. This, however, opens up a very large question, and if we stop to think about it we can't help seeinthat on the whole we give the chief attention to the wrong thing; are anxious to have doctors to cure tie diseased, while but little attention, comparativdy, is given to prevention. Here we are butt up against the doctors and *heir union, the British Medical Association. This i, a close and powerful monoPoly, and lias as yet failed to grasp the fact above indicated that prevention is better than cure. Obstacles are frequently put in the way of the people using public hospitals-that is if the doctors deem the patient rich enough to pay high fees—and endeavor made to have them placed in private hospitals. As a matter of fact, we are on wrong, lines in our attempts at curing ami preventing sickness. We ought,' with the 'help of the law an 1 the Dominion Treasurer, to form ourselves into a huge friendly society for this purpose. Pay the doctors well most certainly, only let it be their supreme care, armed with plenary authority, to keep the .people in good health. We should have the doctor as free as the policeman. The latter is for the purpose of detecting crime and bringing the criminal to book; but before that his duty is to prevent crime, rioting and misbehaviour by watching' and (by carefully nipping in the •bud any tendency he observes likely to lead to evil-doing. Now, the doctor should do the same in the physical sphere as the policeman and the judge in the moral. We already have a Department of Public Health. Just extend it. Let us have a public health office, or offices, where a man or a woman can go for advice (free). Thus many a. disease would be taken in its. early stages, and in very many cases cured. Tn this direction the public hospital would come in, and to it a working man, or member of his family, could be taken and get the skilled nursing, which is the great curative agency, that would be impossible for him to get in the home where so many other things have to be attended to. Under this proposed new regime the doctors would not speak with pride of skilful operations—a patient by the free use of the knife • brought very near death's door, and then snatched back again, which is all very clever, no doubt. Under the new plan his boast would be that such operations were not necessary in his district, and he would pride himself that with the full use of the powers conferred by lair on him, he had so looked after the public health that his district was the healthiest in the country—or he would aim to make it that. Then so far as the suffering public is concerned, there would be great advantage. Every man would know that the best skill in the place was available for him if need be; that if he could not pay he would not, as now, Live to trust to the charitable leniency of the doctor (and doctors no doubt are often very lenient). The average man does not want charity; he want to pay for what he gets, only not exorbitantly, as is sometimes the ease now, where a man for only one surgical operation and its nursing and attention is cast in a bill which amounts to perhaps six months' earnings. The first step towards the realisation of this better state of things would be for the public generally to make more use ot the .public hospitals; 'and for the boards to facilitate this, even though it be in opposition to doctors' protests. We remember the ease of a woman who, in her distress, was brought from a country district to a hospital centre (not New Plymouth), and could get no medical attention, but was passed on from one place to another. It was. nobody's business, and the woman died. We do not blame the doctors in this case for being particularly hard-hearted, only it is plain that had there been a proper medical authority to appeal to the woman would at once have been received and much

suffering no doubt avoided. The other thing uvfe could do would be to put more power and money into the hands of tile Public Health Department and make it a force in the land and ihot a farce. This duty is now feast, in a great measure, ou the 'local authority, who, in turn, employ 'a main to do something, but very little because his pay is very little. The sum <k the whole is this: The care for the health of the public should be as much a charge on the public purse as the care for the property of the public. It will cost money, but men are of more moment than money; ialid, after afl, prevention is better than cure and the cheapest in the long run.