TUBERCULOSIS PATIENTS

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25365, 12 December 1947, Page 8

TUBERCULOSIS PATIENTS

TEACHING OF CHILDREN IN HOSPITAL REPLY TO DOCTOR’S CRITICISM OF EDUCATION BOARD (P.A.) NEW PLYMOUTH, Dec. 11. r ‘Childish in the extreme, and quite unworthy of a senior medical officer,” was hew Mr *L. T. Aylward .described, at a meeting of the Taranaki Education Board to-day, a recent statement by Dr. R. F. Wilson, senior physician at the New Plymouth Hospital that certain Taranaki education authorities were “narrow-minded, pig-headed, and obstructionist.” Dr. Wilson’s statement appeared in a report of a meeting of the executive of the New Zealand Federation of Tuberculosis Associations in Wellington, when he criticised the board’s attitude towards hospital classes for tuberculosis patients in New Plymouth. “If Dr. Wilson had not drowsed off at a meeting we held, he would have realised that the board was prepared to meet the hospital authorities in the fullest possible way,’’ said Mr Aylward.

The chairman (Mr W. H. Jones) explained that the board had given the subject its full consideration, and decided that divided control was not wise and that the teaching of children should be arranged between the Education Department and the hospital, with a nurse-teacher under the Taranaki Hospital Board’s and matron’s control. “I think that Dr. Wilson was misled by incomplete knowledge of the position.” he added.