HEALTH AND HOSPITALS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 36, 12 February 1929, Page 10

HEALTH AND HOSPITALS.

NEEDS OF THE NORTH.

DR. VALINTINE REPLIES.

A CONFERENCE SUCGESTED,

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) WHANGAREI, this dav.

The following replies were given by Dr. T. H. Valintine, Director-General of Health, to representations made by the Whangarei Hospital Board to-day: Until *ueh time as other northern boards are prepared to co-operate, Dr. Valintine did ■lot recommend the purchase of an elaborate X-ray plant for Whangarei Hos•>ital. The alternative was to send the more serious cases to Auckland. A small ■)lant should be secured for fractures and ;uinor cases. Whangarei Hospital could not make a paying proposition of a plant, although catering for a population of 58,000.

In regard to the appointment of a house surgeon, Dr. Valintine said that owing to the lengthy course of training necessary there were few qualified men offering from Dunedin. However, in'piiries were being made in Australia. He hoped no system of honorary sur-

geons would be introduced. This hail proved successful in England, but we were under different conditions.

Concerning the Old People's Home, Dr. Valintine begged that the board would not undertake securing a home for old people until Kamo had been satisfactorily disposed of. It would be much better to await the co-operation of all northern boards in making Whangarei the centre for the North where old men could be better housed.

The Director suggested that a meeting of northern boards, which he would attend, should be held in Whangarei in a few months' time. There were too many hospital districts in the Dominion now that good roads and free ambulances made transport easy. The director

stressed the point that superintendents of isolated country hospitals did not have the same opportunities for consultation as did those at bigger institutions. This was the most important factor in advocating centralisation.