ENGLISH HOSPITALS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 16, 20 January 1926, Page 11

ENGLISH HOSPITALS.

SYSTEM MUCH IMPROVED. I THE SCOURGE OF CANCER. j I EXTENSIVE RESEARCH WORK. Details of the hospital system as practised in England at the present time are contained in a lengthy report, j which has been prepared by Dr. (_'. E. ' Maguire. medical superintendent at the j Auckland Hospital, who visited the Old Country last year. Whilst there were only very few hospitals in England during the early years o! the eighteenth century, there' are to-day 110 public hospitals in London alone, and no fewer than 666 in the other parts of England and Wales. These institutions, which are maintained largely by voluntary contributions, have appealed to sympathy for suffering humanity and have thus done much towards moulding the character of the ! present day Briton. Taking it as a i general statement that the expenditure ' of hospitals has nearly doubled since ' 1014. it is an extraordinary fact that j the incomes of hospitals have increased j to much the same extent, tbe charitable ! public being alive to the wonderful work j done by the voluntary hospitals of I ■Great Britain. . During and after the war period the j hospitals in Britain felt the universal I depression very keenly and many had I to close wards and restrict their activi- | ties. This period of depression is now ■ passing and hospital authorities are finding that they are able to keep pace with the necessary expenditure. The public, on the whole, are taking a great interest in the hospitals, and are helping to raise funds. The nurses generally work a fifty-six hour week in the voluntary hospitals, there being, however, a growing tendency to reduce these hours. The pay of nurses is on a lower scale than is in vogue in New Zealand. Superannua- j tion schemes for nurses, which are] worked chiefly through the Royal I National Pensions Fund. are rapidly j coming into force.. In most cases the homes occupied by the nurses are excellently equipped. Within recent years much money has been spent for the better housing of nurses with very beneficial results as regards health and work. During the last decale there has teen an organised crusade against .cancer. Research work has been given a great impetus by the institution of the Imperial Research Fund, under the direction of the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Surgeons. The British Empire cancer campaign has resulted in the collection of a fund or" £100,000. from which grants are. being j made to various hospitals and research workers. A very active worker at the Cancer Hospital Research Laboratories is Dr. Kennaway. whose parents lived in Canterbury for many years. Another New Zealander in the same field at the Mill Hill Laboratory of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund is Dr. A. M. Begg. Much valuable work has been performed by Dr. five, whose researches go to prove that the viris of cancer is a filter passing germ plus an accessory -•hemical factor. The* nature of the latter is at present undetermined. Dr. five's researches open up a new avenue of investigation along the line that cancer is a parasitic disease. In the treatment of cancer the medical profession has three main methods—surgery, deep X-ray. therapy and radium. Surgery has long held the'field and there are no means at present known which have superseded the extirpation of cancerous growths in their early stages by the surgeon's knife. When the growth has advanced beyond a certain stage it may I be impossible to remove it by means of surgery. Other means to improve or alleviate the condition are found in deep X-ray and radium. The action of .massive dosesup to 230.000 volts X-ray and radium are very similar, the latter being the more powerful. The uses of radium as a curative agent are manifold. It is used in certain skin affections different forms of cancer, and in many other diseases. One o the great assets of radium as a therapeutic measure is the fact that cells are more vulnerable to radium irritation when in a state of rapid growth. There are institutions dealing solely with radium treatment and research. The best known in Europe are the Radium Institutes of London. Manchester. Paris and Brussels. All of these are equipped with beds for in-patients, and have a large out-patient clinic. Their periodic publications are very valuable contributions to the progress radium is making as a therapeutic agent in many diseased conditions, of which cancer is the most important.