T.B. AND SANATORIA.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19310, 15 May 1928, Page 11

T.B. AND SANATORIA.

• TO TIIE OP THE PRESS. Sir, —In the October number of the British Medical Journal, 1926, Dr. Percy Stocks sets out. his answers to the criticism that has been made of his work by sanatorium doctors. The method employed in this investigation was to take a large number of ■ notified T.B. cases, send half to a sanatorium and leave the other half at home. After a period of five years the results were divided into groups and tabulated as follows: — Sputum positive cases dead, or not improved at end of period— FeMales. males. Non-Sanatorium cases .. 83.9 92.1 Sanatorium treated under 3 months .. 96.4 100.0 Sanatorium treated over 3 months .. 91.9. 54.3 Sputum negative cases at end of period dead or not improved— FeMales. males. Non-sanatorium .. 56.0 48.6 Under 3 months .. 58.6 47.4 Over 3 months .. 51.9 54.3

The average period of sanatorium I treatment was six months. Dr. Percy I Stocks.says: "The authors had no prior I reason to doubt the efficacy of sanatorium treatment 1 They were only interested to get at the truth, whether palatable or not. Such a course can only benefit our profession and our patients alike in the long run. If an investigation of a similar nature can be undertaken on Bound lines on the data of a tuberculosis unit with modern sanatoria in England, and if this yields results more satisfactory to us all, the authors will be only too pleased to know that their disappointing conclusion's are not applicable to sanatoria in general.''. Adverse criticism of this investigation has been chiefly on the ground'that the length of stay in the sanatorium was too short to be effective. In ■ New Zealand, the length of stay is a great deal longer than it is in other countries. If this criticism is wisely based, one might reasonably expect that a similar investigation carried out in this country would show much better results. It would need to. The point to be considered is this; New Zealand in common with other countries must let their sanatoria stand or fall on this type of investigation, and the ultimate issue should not be prejudiced by hysterical appeals for sympathy,, and an atmosphere of. dying men and women in the background. Any figures purporting to show the beneficial results of sanatorium treatment that leave the ultimate fate of discharged patients in obscurity are valueless, and perniciously misleading. I think too, that overmuch emphasis can be laid on "what Canterbury has done." Nobody doubts that Canterbury has done its very best; as witness the enormous amount of money spent at Cashmere. A sense of" possessions, although a very human thing, shonld.not be allowed to enter into the question.—Yours, etc., D. C. DAVIE. Clifton, Sumner, May 14th, j