TUBERCULAR PATIENTS.

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 11, 28 May 1920, Page 15

TUBERCULAR PATIENTS.

CASE OF RETURNED MEN. "AFTER CARE" PRGPOSALS. The future of returned soldiers with tuberculosis was discussed at a meeting of those suffering from the disease, held in the Chamber of Commerce recently. The secretary to the Auckland Returned Soldiers' Association, Mr E. F. Andrews, presided. An outline of the policy of the Dominion executive of the Returned Soldiers' Association in regard to the after-care of tubercular men was given by Mr H. J. Aekins, who explained that he had been deputed by the executive to tour the Dominion and collect information in connection with the matter. He said that while the sanatorium treatment was jsatisfactory, the vocational training of the patients should be taken out of the hands of the Defence Department and entrusted to the Repatriation Department. Too many men, after receiving treatment, were left to hunt for work. It was proposed to ask the Government to appoint fonr men who had had personal experience of sanatorium treatment as tubercular patients to supervise and direct the repatriation of the sufferers. The Government would be asked to give a full pension for 12 months subsequent to discharge from the sanatorium, after which each | man would be examined by a chest expert and liis disability guaged and permanent pension fixed accordingly. The Repatriation Department's training farm near Featherston offered an opportunity for twelve months' training in bee-keeping, poultry-keeping, or general farming. The association 's scheme was that tubercular men should be given 5-acre sections for kitcheh-garclens and the like, not necesssrily on the "colony" scale. Two speakers asked what chance they would have aga-inst Chinamen. Mr Aekins replied that the market gardens would be situated in various parts of the Dominion, and must he of the best land. If the Chinamen were going to be an obstacle, an Act might be passed . putting them out of New Zealand. The Government had no policy, ahd would be plea&ed to get definite .suggestions, because the tubercular cases were its greatest worry. The five-acre scheme was the only solution of the difficulty. In regard to the appointment of four former sanatorium patients to supervise the repatriation work, he stated that no man suffering from tuberculosis cared to discuss his case with anyone who was not a similar sufferer. Mr Andrews said the public attitude toward them was absolutely scandalous. Whenever there had been any talk of starting a convalescent home for tubercular cases, the public objected, as if the proposal was to introduce smallpox into their midst. Many of the men who had returned to New Zealand, Snd who were alive to-day, had given mere than those whose hodies were lying in France, Mesopotamia-, or Gallipoli, because the permanently disabled men would suffer all their lives. Mr Aekins said it was now recognised' that the tubercular patient was as permanently disabled as the man who had lost- a limb. The meeting endorsed the policy of the Dominion executive as oullined by ivir Aekins.