CONSUMPTIVE SANATORIA

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 286, 30 May 1912, Page 4

CONSUMPTIVE SANATORIA

SPEECH BY DR. VALINTINE. DEATH RATE REDUCED. By Telegraph—Press Association. Dimedin, Last Night. At a ceremony to-day in: connection with the opining of the balconies at the Dunedin hospital, for the benefit of chronic consumptives, the chairman of the Hospital Board (Mr. J. H. Walker) mentioned that the total cost of about £IOOO had been met by public subscriptions, collected by the Hospital Saturday Association, assisted by a Government subsidy. Dr. Valintine said that the provision now made for these chronic cases was only a temporary measure, and as soon as the Board had funds, a separate ward for treatment of advanced cases would' be erected. He also said that at the recent conference on the Local Government Bill it was stated that the Department had not gone as far as it might have gone, in the way of affording facilities for consumptive patients. It was urged that the campaign which had been suggested by the Department, and which iiad been adopted by the boards, had not been pressed on with sufficient vigor, but nevertheless he maintained that a great deal had been done with regard to the treatment of this particularly unfortunate class of cases, during the last ten years, and although it was early yet to say that those efforts had brought about any tangible result, he was glad to be able to say that the death rate from consumption and tubercular disease generally had materially decreased during the last decade. Some boards had not taken up the campaign against consumption with that vigor which the Department had hoped they would take it up. That could not, however, be said of the Otago Board, which had established quito a modiern sanatorium at Palmerston for the treatment of the disoase in its early stages. It was to be regretted that the Board did not get those cases early enough to be able to hold out to patients the best possible results, but it must be admitted that the sanatorium was doing exceedingly good work. It was certainly very much to be regretted that they could not get these cases earlier. If they could, they could give a patient much more hope of being permanently cured.