LAGGING BEHIND?

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 251, 22 October 1937, Page 8

LAGGING BEHIND?

HOSPITAL BOARDS.

CARE OF YOUNG CRIPPLES,

VUJW or ATTOXLAIIB BItAJVCH.

The contention that hospital board* were lagging behind in their duty to crippled children was made at a meeting last evening of the Auckland branch of the New Zealand Crippled Children Nociety, when a number of applications mostly from parents of children in the flountry requiring specialist treatment •hnilar to that given in the Wilson Home, were being reviewed. I

Most of the applications, it was stated, had been through the smaller hospitals of the province, and it was considered that in the province there were 100 children at least requiring treatment such as given in the Wilson Home.

Children with limbs totally inadequate, crawling around the floors or the back yards in poverty-stricken homes, were known to the society, as were the children of more affluent parents. The restoration to health of such children was the responsibility of hospital boards, but- these were lagging behind the needs of the community. It was added that few parents could And 17/rt a day, the cost of treatment in the Wilson Home, for the one to two years necessary for effectual treatment.

Qualifying For Pcnaionj. If present conditions continued many curable children would grow up to qualify for invalidity pensions. The funds possessed by the Crippled Children Society were not considered sufficient for it to consider even a scheme for boarding such children in private convalescent homes in the city. The capital cost of premises, as well as the running costs, pliiced any such scheme beyond the resources of the Auckland branch.

Tt, win considered necessary, however, to impress upon the public that the Wilson Homo should be able to accommodate ino children at tho present time, that each non-treated cripple tended to become an invalid pensioner, and that it was common sense economy for the community to provide tho means of restoring such children to their normal physique whilu they were young enough for that to ho possible.