HOSPITAL PATIENT'S DISCHARGE.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18138, 30 July 1924, Page 6

HOSPITAL PATIENT'S DISCHARGE.

OTAGO BOARD'S FINDING. (FSES3 ASSOCUTIOX TIUCtMUU.). DUNEM.N, July £9. There is a good deal of public 111-j to rest hero in tho circumstances of the; discluirge of Thomas Pcttit Kirk from the l>unedin Hospital, and an enquirywas' held by the Hospital Board into; the matter last night. ' Kirk- was admitted to the 1 hospital' on July 10th suffering from a fractured shin bono, «nd was discharged on July 12th. He died at his homo on July 16th. At the inquest the Coroner commented on the system of discharge from the hospital. The man had been given crutches and with his wife's assistance had to go three or four hundred yards to his home, the journey taking an hour and a quarter. Death resulted from embolism ;uid the medical evidence at the inquest and at the enquiry agreed that Kirk's painful walk had had nothing to do with tjbis development. The Board passed the following motion That the Board finds' (1) That in view of the directly c-oiiiiicting evidence ' it. is unable to arrive at a definite conclusion as to the various incidents alleged against members of the hospital staff ; {2) that the regulations laid doim for the discharge of patients were not strictly adhered to in this cx.se, in so inr as the house surgeon had only implied instructions from the honorary surgeon. The Board will issue instructions for more rigid compliance with the regulations, with the object of avoiding any grounds of possible misunderstanding on the part of patients or relatives.