CORRESPONDENCE.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13231, 26 September 1908, Page 10

CORRESPONDENCE.

"ARE CONSUMPTIVES TO BE OUTCASTS?" TO THE EDITOa OF "THE PHESS." Sir, —Were there an enlightened public opinion in Canterbury tho question heading this letter would not bo necessary. Our rich men are, how- ■ over, too occupied with their amuse- ■' t ments, our commercial and professional ! men too taken up with money-making, ! and our working classes too apathetic ' under tho -'soothing syrup" of m--1 creased wages, etc., etc., administered I by a paternal Government, to tako any i! real in tercet in the general welfare of /. the community; and the important j question of consumption, its effect on ' tho health, the morale, and tho general . well-being of the colony, is, liko many '. another question, allowed to drift along ' aimlessly and answer itself in tho most disastrous way.. Last week in a letter ~ I emphatically protested against con- - 1: sumptivos being treated as outcasts. To-day I reiterate that protest. I see ' that the North Canterbury Hospital ' Board has decided to take no more patients at the Breeze's road Camp, and 1 I ask what other provisions aro they going to mako for these unfortunates be--1 fore the sanatorium is ready for their ■ reception? Many of them aro very ill, i in need of the best of nursing, medical ■ attention, and comforts, and there is j no place for them to go to. The Ho_- • pital is practically shut to them. Meanwhile they aro acquiring tho disease, , suffering, and dying, with, in many cases, hardships that can bo and should bo avoided. Incidentally they aro aiso disseminating the disease both among their own families and among tho people at large. While this is going on tho Hospital Board deliberates and postpones, and quibbles about taking over a building erected specially for • the purpose, on a peculiarly suitablo i site. Tho nonsense talked about there ' being accommodation only for the staff 'is quite childish; there is quite a number of suitablo sites for tho sholters dotted all round tho permanent buildings ; but, of course, theso latter were erected first, and with regard to these \ buildings they wero with a ! view to treating tho disease thorough!ly and scientifically, not merely hord- ! ing the patients together in a sort of quarantine. There need bo no fear of a lack of patients, for not only pul- \ monary tuberculosis, but also surgical ; case-, roap tho greatest benefit from j sanatorium treatment. The most • modern statistics tell us that in surgi- ! cal tuberculosis any but tho most necrs--1 sary operations should be avoided, and that tho death rate has been lowered and recoveries increased in the meet extraordinary way _by the avoidance of : operation and general treatment in th<* open air. If the Christchurch Hospital wero relieved of theso cases it would have" many beds to spare for patients who cannot now obtain admission. , Therefore, I say once more that it j is tho duty, tho pressing duty, of tho Hospital Board to mako immediate proI vision for the treatment of tubercular 1 cases of all kinds, and that if this is still postponed- the members aro not worthy of that public confidence which at present enables them to sit in judgment on, and practically condemn to suffering and death, a perennial stream 1 of their fellow creatures.—Yours, etc., I •' E.J.