CARE OF TUBERCULAR SOLDIERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 October 1918, Page 4

CARE OF TUBERCULAR SOLDIERS.

GROSSLY INADEQUATE MEASURES. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, Last Night. The delegation from the Auckland Patriotic Association and Red Cross Society that recently visited Rotprua and Te Waikato sanatoriums presented its report. As regards the conditions at Te Waikato Sanatorium, it is stated that the demand is so great that the discharges have to take place at the end of three months, cured or not cured. The tendency was- for patients to hide their complaint, and consequently intermingling with others, which caused infection. It was idle to discharge men at the end of three months and telling theni they had been taught to take care of themselves. There was really no practical way in which 90 per cent, of the infected men could continue treatment outside of a recognised institution. We are informed that 700 or 800 returned men here suffered from tuberculosis, and the majority should be under treatment, or at least* observation, for, say, two years. On]y 'SI of them are at Waikato. The erection of a new sanatorium at Wftipukurau lias not yet been commenced, but it is stated that the patients from Waikato are to be removed there. The plans provide for only IS single-bed shelters, 29 two-bed shelters, and wards for 14 beds, a total of 90, so that from the moment of opening, say, nine or ten months hence, there will be the same congestion as exists now, with presumably the same reckless discharge of uncursd jatients. Even if Waikato is continued, the joint accommodation will be too small. ', ■