"PATIENT UNTO DEATH."

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 109, 10 May 1928, Page 10

"PATIENT UNTO DEATH."

SOME TUBERCULOSIS CASES, DIED AWAITING TREATMENT DEPARTMENT STRONGLY CRITICISED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, Wednesday. Dr. Valintine asked for a little more patience. Some of these people had beer patient unto death, and he thought i 1 time that something was done for those who were still lfring. So declared Dr. G. J. Blackmore director of the T.B. institutions under th( Canterbury H<«pital Board, wher addressing the Canterbury members ol Parliament at a luncheon to-day. "We want acco nmodation for advanced cases," said Dr. Blackmore. "All the beds are occupied now and there are 31 women waiting to come in. Last year 11 women died waiting for admission, anc in the past two yeirs 17 women have diet waiting." It was not correct to say there wer« more cases of tuberculosis in the Soutl Island, as Dr. Valintine had suggested The fact was that in the South Islanc something was done to discover infec tious cases. In tht. North there was n<

' organisation to do this, and if a dispensary were established there, as in Canterbury, the director-general would receive a shock. Dr. Valintine should be in possession of all the information about tuberculosis that any commission could give him. He [ had been chief health officer for 20 years, and now he asked for a commission to inquire how to deal with tuberculosis. Yet, said Dr. Blackniore, there were 700 or 800 people dying every year of tuberculosis and the director-general had no policy dealing with it. Dr. Blackniore will resign his position as soon as the commission which the Minister of Health proposes to set up to e report on consumptive sanatoria has comn pleted its work. "It is simply that I am due to retire," said Dr. Blackniore, this evening. "Probe ably I should have done so before this, but I desire to see the commission's work through." Dr. Blackmore expects L g to retire at the end of the year.