WAIPIATA PATIENTS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 48, Issue 252, 3 August 1928, Page 2

WAIPIATA PATIENTS

THE COMMISSION'S REPORT. DISCUSSION BY THE COMMITTEE. The Waipiata Sanatorium Committee met in iDunedin on Tuesday Mr J. Matheson (chairman) presiding. Mr W. Bryant represented the Ashburton "Hospital Board. The Hospital Beards' Association forwarded copies of correspondence between the Minister of Health and the Association with reference to the proposed amendment to Section 92 of the Hospitals Act so far as it referred to the residence and treatment of T.B. cases. In view of the difficulty m arriving at a satisfactory amendment of the Act to generally meet the wishes of all hospital boards m the Dominion, the communication was received, members being of opinion that this was really a matter that should be discussed at the next Hospital Boards' Conference. The secretary submitted a statement showing that at date of meeting the different boards had patients in the Institution as follow:—South Canterbury 25, Southland 29, Ashburton 12, Wai'taki 10, South Otago 7, Wallace 3, Manioteto 4, Vincent 1, Sanatorium Committee 1, private patient I—a total of 93. Of that number one had been in for mofe than two years, 15 for more than one year, and 77 for less than one year. Since the previous meeting eight patients had been discharged, all with the disease arrested. The waiting list had been reduced from 80 to 65, and in view of the early opening of the new female patients' shelters this would be still further reduced before next meeting. The Medical Superintendent (Dr. A. Kidd) advised that during June five patients had been . admitted and six. discharged, while 78 were remaining on July 1. All these, with the exception of six whose condition was stationary, were doing well or improving. The treasurer submitted a statement of receipts and payments for the four months of the present year, compared with the amount estimated, the actual receipts showing a slight decrease on the estimates, while the actual expenditure also showed a decrease. The Director-General of Health notified that the Minister had approved the committee's estimated capital expenditure for the year, on the understanding that if any of the works were not undertaken, the associated boards would not be called upon to pay the whole of their capital levy for the current year. The chairman reported that a billiard table for the use of patients would be installed during the month. The report of the T.B. Commission was discussed, members being somewhat disappointed that while it to some extent criticised the committee's policy at Waipiata Sanatorium as regards tujberculosis treatment, type of patient 'admitted, length of stay in institution, etc., it made no constructive suggestions that the Committee might adopt which are likely to bring about more successful results than are at present being experienced. With regard to the suggestion that more advanced cases should be admitted, the Committee emphasised the fact that at Timaru in 1922 the associated Boards were urged by the Direc-tor-General of Health (Dr. Valmtine) to establish a sanatorium at Waipiata 1 for the curative treatment of early cases of phthisis, and to the best of its ability the Committee, on behalf of the associated Boards, had carried out that policy with marked success, as evidenced by the fact that for the five years ended at March 31 last, 78 per cent, or the 208 patients discharged from the Sanatorium had the disease arrested, and were thus able to return to their fanner employment. . If the Committee's policy is to bo extended to include the more advanced typo of case, considerable capital expenditure would require to be incurred in providing more patients' accommodation. . , ~ f . The Committee appreciated the tact that the Commission had evidently given careful consideration to the question of T.B. in this Dominion, but was still of the opinion that the policy and practice at Waipiata of giving prior consideration to the treatment of the early case was from a health and economic point of view a sound one, as every advanced case to-day was at one time an early case, which no doubt could have been cured with less expense and loss of time than is now posS 1 The Committee further had the fullest confidence in the methods adopted by Dr. Kidd, and emphasised that the latter did not admit patients to the institution for treatment without thenhaving been first recommended by another medical practitioner, and that apart from his work in the institution he had during the last year, under the Committee's directions, kept in touch with discharged patients and personally examined at the different centres in the Committee's area 324 suspected cases of T. 8., of whom 195 were considered suitable for sanatorium treatment, 69 unsuitable, and 60 had no definite sign of the disease. The Committee was of opinion that were every hospital district in the Dominion to'put the same enthusiasm into this campaign as the associated South Island Boards have done, the next ten years would see a very marked reduction in the number of deaths from pidmonary tuberculosis.