The Daily News. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1911. CURRENT TOPICS. HOSPITALS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 73, 16 September 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1911. CURRENT TOPICS. HOSPITALS.

The Hon. Oliver Samuel made some pertinent remarks in the Legislative Council the other day on the second reading of the Mental Defectives Bill. They are the more interesting in view of tlie recent discussion in this town on the same subject. He stated: "Public hospitals, as a rule, are not open to those who have sufficient to pay for their being nursed in private institutions. Not that any hospital board can legally exclude anyone, but the boards do exclude. On the ground that the capacity of the hospital is not sufficient to enable them to treat there persons other than those who cannot obtain treatment elsewhere." He showed that it is recognised that whilst it is the duty of the State to see to the public health of all the people, rich or poor, it is above all its duty to see that those of the sick who have not means to obtain proper attendance elsewhere should be received into the public hospitals in preference to those who have means to obtain attendance elsewhere. That is a sound rule, but that exclusion on any other ground is indefensible. The Hon. Samuel continued:

"'But wo have to moot this objection, that throughout the Dominion there is, amongst the poorer classes, a feeling—not justified—that the treatment which they get, not being that which the wealthier receive, is • cheap and nasty.'" In reply to an interjection that this feeling did not exist in Wellington, he said: "I cannot speak for Wellington, but 1 can speak for my own district, and [ can say that by 'many there it is constantly suggested that it is something to bo ashamed of to go to a public hospital, and men who cannot afford, in justice to their families, the extra expense entailed by a private hospital, arc urged to revert to the private than to the public hospital, and some cases do so, because they believe the,f would lose the respect of their neighbors and be looked upon as being more or less paupers were they to go- into the public hospital. . . . hi some part of this Dominion—and 1 know myself of one case, at any rate—wo have houses thirty or forty years old, no doubt -repaired and altered since first erected, which were not originally built for private hospitals, but are now doing duty as such, and which, if public hospitals, would have been pulled down long ago and replaced by other buildings, ibecause they would be condemned as insanitary and liable to give rise to those influences which in the case particularly of surgical operations frequently produce ■fatal results. It is generally .believed, too. that the proportion of nurses to patients in private hospitals is quite insufficient. I am not speaking now on behalf of the very jvealtliy, .because whatever we do j they will usually manage to get exceptional advantages. J am speaking on ■behalf of all. but mainly of those who have only a few pounds per week, sufficient, siy. to support themselves and provide, possiblv. .ome savings to carry them over a,iv ]--riod of sickness that may occur, and make some provision for their dependents. These men, as a rule, are at pivsrnl una!)!,, to get into public hospitals. As a m 1... (he medical profession do not ftvor (heir admission, and naturally so. In many parts of the Dominion there is. unfortunately, in the public hospitals no resident medical officer. There are medical men who hold appointment-; in lonneetion with these hospital*. Inn arc! not resident there, and who have private practices, and under siicli circumstances it is only natural that the influences of the medical profession are supposed to he in the direction of diverting those who would otherwise go to public hospitals into private hospitals. And there is an impression, which I do not know lo .bo well founded, but there is no u-e endeavoring to conceal it, that many of these private hospitals are institutions in which medical men are pecuniarily interested in some manner or other. ... I do not know that there is any need for any medical man to be ashamed of it, provided there is no secrecy about it and his payment is direct from the patient. On the contrary. I am certain that some of the best private institutions in other parts, at any rate, have been established bv medical moil on philanthropic grounds, and are sometimes maintained by them at considerable pecuniary loss. I think every hospital hoard should have a resident medical man on its hospital to whom persons can apply 'for admission, and to treat patients who reside in or apply for treatment or advice at the hospital, and who will not be open to the suggestion of .being influenced in tins direction of favoring any institution maintained for private pecuniary gain as •against a public hospital. There ought to be compulsory inspection ft, and re-

ports nil. all private hospitals by an independent medical oll'icer who has no interest in any private hospital, and is not in private practice." The Hon. Samuel went on to refer to the need for paying greater attention to the registration of the medical practitioners of the country, suggesting that the qucstion of registration should he in the hands of the Chief Medical Officer of the Dominion instead of being left to the Registrar-General, who was not a medical man. The hon. gentleman's views ■ on private and public hospitals are timely, and will meet with the approbation of those who are at all in touch with what is going on in several of the ' centres.