BOTTLE LAKE HOSPITAL.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19690, 6 August 1929, Page 11

BOTTLE LAKE HOSPITAL.

TO THS EUITOE CP THE P3ESS. Sir, Christchurch can boast, and rightly so, that its public hospital is unequalled in the Dominion. Yet one branch under the same administration—the Infectious Diseases Hospital at Bottle Lake—;is almost a bv-word throughout North Canterbury. " Why does no parent relish the mention of the name "Bottle Lake'"? The same excellent care and treatment under the same staff f hat is available in the children's ward at the Public Hospital are also available at Bottle Lake. Hence no apprehension can come from that direction. The trouble seems to be that parents dread that complaints, other than the one causing admission, will be contracted before the usual six-weeks' term is up. It would be very illuminating to know how many children admitted during the last six months with scarlet {'ever contracted chicken pox, measles, or diphtheria while at Bottle Lake. Frequently, when scarlet fever patients are drafted to the convalescent ward, the next move is to the ward set apart for chicken pox patients. Though this latter complaint is not a notifiable one, and seldom of a serious nature, yet children, once in there, are kept under the same conditions of isolation for an indefinite period beyond the usual six weeks, until passed for discharge by the doctor. This extra period may extend for weeks beyond the time when the children would have otherwise been free from "Scarlet" infection. As it is compulsory that a child infected with scarlet fever should be sent to an isolation hospital, so it should be compulsory that every care should be taken by the Hospital authorities to make that isolation perfect. I am not. sure that the Board can morally claim fees for any extra period that a child may be forced to spend at Bottle Lake due to any infection contracted while there. It would be well for parents affected to give this matter full consideration. Whether they can legally claim these fees the writer would like to know.

It has happened also that head-vermin have been brought back. This, of course, when the number of patients being admitted and discharged is so great, cannot be avo ded perhaps, but a child so affected loses any extra period above mentioned from its schooling, plus a fortnight or so taken to clear its head at home. Should not the Board be considered to be to blame for this lost time and extra expense? That it does recognise that its building arrangements and present regulations regarding isolation are at fault is seen from an extract appearing in the "General News" column of_ The Phess of July 18th, where it is reported that a new building programme, to ensure perfect isolation, is contemplated. Rather late, after a two years' epidemic! In another report it was stated that this epidemic had cost the Board £SOOO, which might have been considerably reduced had each child spent only his prescribed time in Bottle Lake. —Yours, etc., W. M. BURROWS. July 31, 1929.

[This letter was submitted to the hospital authorities for their comment Dr. J. F. Duncan, Medical Superintendent of the Burwood Infectious Diseases Hospital, said that practically all the time the scarlet fever epidemic has been on, cases of chicken pox had cropped up. Some children went into hospital suffering from scarlet fever and chicken pox, others developed chicken pox in a week or two, which obviously had been incubated before they were admitted, and others contracted the disease in the hospital. Scarlet fever convalescents are very susceptible to chicken pox, measles, and diphtheria. Chicken pox was very difficult to eradicate; it was impossible without a tremendous amount of additional accommodation, and he did not think that even then it could be eradicated. No scarlet fever patients had contracted measles or diphtheria. As a precaution against diphtheria, every child admitted was immediately swabbed, and occasionally a carrier was found. It was seldom that chicken pox delayed the dismissal of a patient: usually it was some complication of scarlet fever. Referring to the correspondent's remarks regarding the buildings for which tenders recently were called, Mr W. S. Wharton, secretary to the Board, stated that they will constitute a separate sanitary block for the few diphtheria patients that are being received. This new block is simply to make conditions even more perfect than they are at present. As far as vermin in the head are concerned, every possible care is taken to keep the children's heads clean, but it must be borne in mind that children from all parts of the town are admitted, and it is not always possible to get heads cleaned ■n five minutes. "Tf it ran be shown," Mr Wharton added, "that owing to any laxity on the part of the Board's staff a patient has been kept for an undue length of time, consideration will be given to the reduction or remission of fees."]