HOSPITAL SEPARATION.

Bruce Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 13, 16 February 1920, Page 3

HOSPITAL SEPARATION.

AETIOLE VI. hi these articles, the ease for a South Otago 'Hospital District has been put briefly, but we hope conclusively. After this article it is not intended for the present to write more, though there are aspects of the question that have not been fondled on. Enough lias been said to show the- value of a separate district and the necessity of one. 'Some people are obsessed with the value of a "big" hospital. We have deliberately refrained from any criticism of the Dunedin Hospital, but there is one thing, not in the way of criticism, we can- say: Big hospitals are apt to lose the ''personal touch," and it is the presence of this touch in local hospitals that helps to make them so valuable; also, Dr 'Sir Napier Burnett, one of the world's greatest authorities on hospitals and hospital organisation, says: "It has 'been estimated that the rate of recovery of a patient is some twenty or thirty per cent, more rapid 'by residence in a 'hospital in the open country, as compared with lying in a hospital ward in : the centre of some populous city." The only objection to the establishment of the South Otago District comes from the Otago Board, but it to underestimate .the strength of that opposition. Dunedin can pull a great ■many strings. It is well, however, to recognise the kindly feeling of some members of the board. We understand that the determination to oppose the South Otago Bill was carried by only a small majority. Dr Lindo Ferguson at the October conference advised the South Otago delegates not to go in for separation, Ibut concluded his address by generously saying: "Now with rct'w dice to what we could do here, the staff of t'he school will do everything they possibly can for your patients whether you have a separate district or not. it does not make a pin's difference where the patients come freni, whether they are 'black or whether they are white, or what a man earns. We' are absolutely ■unbiassed. The resources of the hospital, so far as the staff are concerned, will be just as freely at your service as they have beonj on purely humanitarian grounds. The resources of the school will be at your service, but I strongly recommend you to look a long time before you leap. 'lf I can personally be of any assistance 1 shall be only too delighted to give you any advice I can."

The South Otago Committee appreciated tiiis spirit, and it lias taken the word of advice and "looked long." After examining -the question' most closely from all sides, after getting information from all over New Zealand, after hearing ■arguments against as well as for, it lias come to flic deliberate conclusion that, a separate district will meet our requirements. The committee did not reach, this conclusion hurriedly. They and the public were slow in recognising their necessities, and slower still iu recognising their powers and opportunities. They were very conservative in their attitude 'towards this new project. "W'hat had done surely would continue to do." They were very dou'btful of their powers to undertake sncli a proposition-. That is the general fault of country districts. Is it proposed to establish' woollen mills at Milton? "How ridiculous!" Is it proposed to establish freezing works at Balchitha.' '"'How absurd! " Is it proposed to establish a South Otago hospi-' tal district? "What rot! " And yet the first two proposals when carefully examined were found not to be ridiculous or absurd, and they have both been successfully.carried out, and to-day are of enormous advantage to the districts they are in. The 'hospital district proposal has also been carefully examined, and. far from being a "rotten" idea, South Otago. people 'have found it to be a sane, sober proposal, a proposal which is fraught with enormous possibilities of good'to South Otago. They are now keen to see it in operation, and if they succeed it will only be a very few years till everyone is wondering how South Otago could possibly get along without a hospital'district of its own.