Doctor’s remarks criticised

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34021, 9 December 1975, Page 27

Doctor’s remarks criticised

Exception to remarks made by the chairman of the Auckland Hospital Board (Dr F. Rutter) at a meeting of the Hospital Boards’ Association in Wellington has been taken by Professor F. T. Shannon, professor of pediatrics at the Christchurch Clinical School.

Dr Rutter had said that some health services had ceased to be of value in spite of their considerable cost. He gave as an example the value of intensive-therapy units for new-born infants, and said that studies had shown that the intensive care of infants might have no influence on ithe outcome. “The content of Dr Rutter’s statement would suggest that he is either misinformed or misquoted,” said Professor Shannon. “There is ■now overwhelming scientific 'evidence of the benefits of neo-natal intensive-care units, reducing both morbidity and mortality in the new-born period. “This evidence has been published from Britain, Canada. the United States, Australia, and New Zealand,” Professor Shannon said. “Not only do these many reports indicate a very substantial increase in survival rates, but also enough time has now elapsed to indicate that the surviving infants show normal development in subsequent life.”

Local statistics could be used to illustrate this. The North Canterbury Hospital Board’s neo-natal unit had opened in 1966, and the neonatal mortality rate in the following three years had fallen by 30 per cent. “Dr Rutter referred specifically to infants suffering from acute respiratory distress, which is only one of the disorders dealt with in such units,” Professor Shannon said. "Before the intro-

duction of intensive care, the mortality rate was 40 per cent and a report from Oxford, England, in August, showed a reduction to 5 per cent. “I share Dr Rutter’s concern about proper cost-benefit ■studies in medical care, but ihe is certainly in error in i selecting this particular field of criticism. “Surely the salvage of a ■ new-born infant with every prospect of 70 years intact survival must be one of our more worth-while endeavours. “I hope that Dr Rutter will now produce evidence in support of his statement, which flies in the face of established facts and of pediatric opinion,” said Professor Shannon. Dr Rutter said in Auckland last evening that the remarks attributed to him were correct, a Press Association message said. But further remarks, he had made on the subject had not been reported. His comments, he said, related to 1968, a year in which a study on the'effectiveness of neo-natal care had been carried out.

The situation had changed markedly since then, he said. The therapy was a very valuable tool which the board intended to continue to use.