SEPTIC SELF-INfECTION

NZ Truth, 15 March 1924, Page 6

SEPTIC SELF-INfECTION

Not Proved, Says Counsel Kelvin ' Maternity Inquiry Closed. The Commission (chairman, Mr. F. Earl, K.C.), that sat m Auckland to inquire into fatal septicaemia at Kelvin Maternity Hospital concluded its sittings last week. Lawyer Duthie, on behalf of the doctors, emphasised the strenuous nature of their calling, and said that the medical service of the public was highly efficient. Dr. Williams had a case for every day m the year, bar Saturdays and Sundays. If any blame attached to the doctors they were prepared to take it. It had been suggested that certain doctors had allowed patients to go into Kelvin when they knew there had been recent cases of sepsis theVe, but counsel would absolutely refuse to believe any such thing. It was simply inconceivable — it could not be entertained for a minute. Now, on behalf of Dr. Hughes: that officer had been overworked m a most marked manner, working up to 2 a.m. ori occasions. The doctors wished it known they had every confidence m him as Health Officer. For Nurse Gibbons, Lawyer Findlay emphasised the ten years splendid record of her hospital (Kelvin) and her skilled and untiring efforts. Nurse Gibbons was at the head of her profession and was one of the Board of Examiners of Nurses — and she knew of absolutely nothing that could have been done m the cases under review. Nurses were under doctors' orders. • Mr. Johnstone contended that the theory of self-infection (infection secondary to pneumonia or influenza) had not been proved, and it was therefore to be assumed that the infection that caused the illnesses and deaths at Kelvin came about m the usual way, and was therefore preventable. Earlier steps should have been taken to disinfect a hospital where preventable disease had occurred. ' Mrs. Delamore was allowed to go into the hospital after there had been sepsis cases. She should not have been allowed to enter the place, or, at all events, she should have been

warned of the cases that had already occurred. The methods of the Health Department could not be condemned more severely than they had by Dr. Makgill, who had not only damned It with faint praise, but criticised its methods of hospital inspection. Counsel quite agreed that Dr. Hughes was a very much overworked man. Mr. Johnstone went on to urge that the Commission should make recommendations for proper isolation m hospitals of suspicious cases, for bacteriological examination, of suspicious cases, for more co-ordination among medical men attending hospitals, the keeping of a case book m every medical home, better sanitary arrangements, and the provision of more certified nurses. Counsel said that it was with some reluctance that he was compelled to state that during the hearing he was disappointed with some of the medical evidence. There was a readiness among these witnesses to support any theories put forward on tho doctor's behalf, and lt was extremely difficult to obtain any admissions from them— even when those admissions did not amount to much. At this stage, Mrs. Rhodes asked permission to speak, and she said that she did not complain of any actual neglect of her daughter (Mrs. Delamore) at Kelvin. She had complained of several things, but never of actual neglect. Lawyer Richmond (for the Health Department said that while it was physically Impossible for the carrying out of hospital Inspection with anything like the frequency that the Health Department would desire, that did not say that the inspection was farcical. Tho fact was that the staff wanted Increasing. There was no Justification for the suggestion that the failure of the department to take action had led to the deaths of any of these women. The department had to realise that people like Miss Gibbons had not unlimited capital, and unless the Government was prepared to equip additional hospital wards for maternity cases the department must be tactful In the way It treated private maternity homes. The business was not too attractive as it waa. The Commission was then declared closed.