RANG OFF!

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 88, 30 August 1912, Page 6

RANG OFF!

IN TEE DOCTOR'S EAR. Hokitika, August 27. The action of Die chairman of the Westland Hospital and Charitable Aid Board, in refusing admission to the hospital of an indigent -woman suffering from consumption in its contagious form, was brought under the public notice today by Dr. R. B. P. Monson. In a letter in this morning's Times, Dr. Monson pointed out that when ho interviewed the chairman per telephone at the secretary's request, he was discourteously treated, and was asked whether he was providing the money for the woman's accommodation. He said he was not, and the chairman declined to admit the woman, and rang off in the doctor's ear. Concluding the letter, Dr. Monson wrote: "This is a matter in which the public welfare is at stake, and I ask the public if they are going to allow the chairman of the Board to over-ride our public health laws, and disregard the public safety by permitting the poor woman to be kept by the public without duo precautions being taken against the spread' of this 'human scourge.' A suitable place is absolutely necessary for cases of this sort, or else skilled supervision by a trained nurse. The fact that the poor woman is being kept by the charity of her neighbors does not do away with the fact that hospitals and hospital boards were primarily established for the benefit of the indigent poor." The Inspector-General of Hospitals has been communicated with and he is expected to move in the matter.