T.B. TREATMENT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 October 1943, Page 3

T.B. TREATMENT

SANATORIA ACCOMMODATION COMBINED MOVE PROPOSED. WAIRARAPA HOSPITAL BOARD DISCUSSION. Following on a discussion at the previous meeting of the Wairarapa Hospital Board on the incidence of tuberculosis the board decided at its meeting in Masterton yesterday to consider the matter of combining with other hospital boards to provide sanatoria accommodation.

Notice of motion was given by Mr Duncan McGregor that he would move a resolution to that effect at the next board meeting. Miss C. McKenny said the first thing the board had to do was to decide whether there should or should not be a combined effort by hospital boards. Mr A. Forsberg suggested that more attention could be paid to investigating the root causes of tuberculosis. Miss McKenny said that the root causes were often untraceable. There was a moving population in New Zealand and commonly infectioff was incurred early in life, but there was no external sign until tuberculosis was discovered later in life under the stress of ill health or hard work. Contacts had been traced but there had not been ap much investigation, due to lack of facilities, as there might have been. Unfortunately the disease was discovered only when it was considerably advanced. There would, in the future, be a general demand for more experienced medical and nursing care. Mr A. Clark suggested that a system of compulsory X-ray investigation might assist in finding cases.

The Managing-Secretary, Mr Norman Lee. said that the Waipawa Hospital Board had a portable X-ray plant and had arranged to X-ray every child in its district.

Mrs S. Fletcher said that a similar thing should be done wholesale by the Government rather than by individual boards.

Mr IT. Thomas said that patients could be as well treated in the Masterton institution as elsewhere.

Mrs Fletcher said that it would be seen, in the early morning, that the mists hung over the hospital due to the proximity of the river. She said the present location was unsuitable as the mists dampened patients’ bed coverings. It was a matter for congratulation, nevertheless, that the hospital was one of the few with sufficient T.B. accommodation.