PUBLIC HEALTH.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 September 1920, Page 5

PUBLIC HEALTH.

(mental hospital charges. j ' A "HALF-WAY" HOUSE. By Telegraph.—Press Association, Wellington, Last Kiglit. When the Mental Hospitals, Public Health, and Hospital and Charitable Aid Departments' vote of £419,068 was taken in the House of Representatives to-day, Mr Witty and Dr. Newman made an appeal for more pleasant surroundings in connection with mental hospitals. Mr. Sullivan urged the necessity of establishing some "half-way house," as as an adjunct to mental hospitals, where a certain class of patients could be placed. If the Government did not care to do this, then they should license private institutions to care for these special cases. Mr. Isitt strongly supported .this suggestion. He knew of many cases which were not extreme enough to. warrant their detention in a mental hospital, and yet there was no other place for them. Mr. S. G. Smith (Taranaki) said he hoped that if such institutions were established they would not be such as only rich people could use for the benefit of their friends. Mr. Lysnar complained that in some cases people were kept in asylums when there was no need to detain them. LIST OF CHARGES. The Minister repudiated the suggestion that any one was was kept in an asylum a day longer than was necesBary. The State had no object in 1 doing so, but the public must be protected. It was not for a layman to say whether a person was sane or not. With regard to a "half-way house," he pointed out that such institutions were now established in Christchureh and Dunedin. Personally he was entirely opposed to the idea of private asylums in this country. Mr. Savage gave a list of charges against the administration of the Auckland mental hospital,' based on a letter cent to him by an Auckland solicitor, (it the request of a former attendant. He asked the Minister to look carefully into the allegations. On the subject of public health, Mr. Craigie raised tho question of sanatorium accommodation for tubercular patients. The Minister, in reply, said lie bebelieved another sanatorium was necessary in the South Island, and Ho favored Central Otago as the most suitable site. BETTER CONDITIONS FOR'NURSES. Dr. Newman urged the more rigid enforcement of the quarantine laws to prevent the introduction 'of epidemics, especially from Eastern countries. The Minister, replying to several speakers, said the department had decided on, better conditions for nurses and as a beginning would make it obligatory on hospital boards to grant nurses one clear day every week. Regarding pay, that was a matter he would go into carefully, but he could not see his way to provide an increase immediately Later, Mr. Pair safd there seemed to bo a tendency for boards in larger centres to build up big base hospitals and to neglect the needs of the back districts. Regarding quarantine, be was keenly alive to the duty of the Department, and he had already summoned a meeting of the Medical Board of Health to discuss the matter. Ho had asked the Health Department to carry out a complete quarantine system at the chief ports of entry in New Zealand, and every care would be taken in view of the large number of immigrants coming into the country. The vote was passod without alteration.