TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTION

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 152, 28 June 1911, Page 5

TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTION

HOSPITAL CONFERENCE DISCUS SION.

(By Telegraph.—rress L.

WELLINGTON, Tuesday. ; "How best to secure administrative control of consumption" was one of the questions dealt with at the Hospitals Conference to-day. The Chairman of the North Canterbury Board (Mr. Horrall) said medical men should be asked to give notification to the Health Depart--1 ment of all cases coming under their observation, and those suffering from disease should be instructed to present themselves for examination at public dispensaries. Treatment at these places should be free of charge. Inspectors in the employ of boards should be required to keep a lookout for cases of consumption, and above all there should be a system of inspection of school children. He moved that the Government should establish two well-founded sanatoria and farm colonies, one m either

island. . The motion was seconded by Mr. Armstrong (Marlborough). . Mr. G. London (Wellington) claimed that sanatoria controlled by hospital boards compared not unfavourably with those under the Government. He suggested that the following motion would 1 probably be more acceptable to tne majority at the Conference:— lhat sanatoria for the treatment of consumption be established in suitable districts near the four most important cities ot the Dominion; that the boards of the districts embracing such cities control these sanatoria; that patients from all the other districts of the Dominion be available for treatment in such sanatoria; and that the expense incidental to the treatment be paid by the respective

The motion was seconaea oy ""• Ewing (Du-nedin). Mr. Eraser (Oamaru) declared that consumption had not been dealt with in a proper way. It was an infectious disease, but had not been treated as such. It was a preventable disease, but i little had been done to prevent it. I Mr Kirk (Wellington) said it was not necessary to ask the Government to do everything. He would move, "That the Conference is of opinion that the notification of consumption and its allied diseases should be made compulsory. Furher that it be a recommendation to the Government that hospital boards be Tiven power to detain for treatment in these institutions persons who are suffering from tuberculous diseases, if, in the opinion of the health officer or medical superintendent' of the hospitals, such detention is necessary in the in-| terests of public health." _ |

Mr. Hawke (Southland) seconded tne motion. In reply to a questioner, Dr. V aimtine said "that consumption was infectious disease, and it was imperative upon medical practitioners to notify it. The trouble was that a case lasted for, say. three years, and doctors who had fit in their .hands during the latter stascs always assumed that it had been notified before. What was wanted was notification and The requirement of the law was not being carried out as it should. The subject will be further discussed when the Conference .resumes to-morrow.

(By Telegraph. —Press Association.) • . WELLINGTON, this day.

Further lengthy discussion took place at the Hospitals Conference to-day on the | treatment; of consumption. The following I resolution Was eventually passed:. "That, this Conference,' fully' recognising the scourge consumption is to humanity, and the laudable efforts of the Health Department to cope with the disease, begs to I assure the Department of its readiness to heartily co-operate in any scheme of preventive or curative character that the Department may devise.