A CASUAL WARD.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 227, 18 June 1908, Page 8

A CASUAL WARD.

MORE EQUIPMENT NEEDED. (BY TELEGKArU.—SrECrAL CORUEOFOXDZNT.) Christchurch, June 17. An agitation is on foot to induce the Hospital Board to resume control of the casualty ward, which it abandoned some two or three years ago. Since then the ward has been kept open by means of voluntary contributions by Lyttelton residents, and the shipping companies. Tho "Press," in supporting the proposal that the Board should take over the ward again, urges that something should be done to put it in a' proper condition. "At present," it says, from a surgical point of view the building is in a filthy and insanitary condition. There is a stablo and a manuro heap close to tho ward, while the smoke and soot and dirt from the steamers and railway engines and the electric light station all tend to iriako the building and the air in the ward dirty and foul. It is the merest truism of surgical practice to say that the walls of the rooms in which sick or seriously injured peoplo have to lie. tho operating room, and the bathroom should be so painted and fitted up that they can be washed clean at any time with disinfectants and antiseptics, and that the whole place should be efficiently ventilated; None of these conditions' are, adequately fulfilled, 1 so that at present any_ doctor must, shudder at tho prospect of' having to perform a serious surgical operation under the conditions prevailing in tho Lyttelton ward. Tako, for oxample, tho enso of the unfortunate man Gilroy, who had both feet cut off by railway trucks on Monday. Ho was received in the casualty ward shortly after 3.15 p.m., and was almost in a dying condition from shock. When he was placod on the operating table, one of the medical men in attendance, assisted by a policeman, had to inject saline fluid to tide the injured man over the. shook. A second doctor administered chloroform, while a third carried out tho surgical work of amputating botlr legs, etc. There was no trained nurso availablo, but the custodian was kep,fc busy running to and fro with hot water dressings and so forth, and worked, as she always does, with tho utmost zeal and conscientiousness, but the conditions were most unfavourable for anything approaching a successful result. Consider, for example, the manner in which the surgeons were handicapped b,v tho utter want of any provision for properly lighting tho placo. As a matter of fact, they had to do their work by the light nf a kerosene lamp, which was held by Mr. W. Radcliffe, a member of tho Hospital Board, who moved it alwut as the surgeons directed. Mr. Radcliffe deserves tho utmost praise for the untiring manner in which ho has worked in his pri-, yale capacity to keep tho ward in existence, and on this occasion gave the most convincing proof of his self-sacrificing interest in tho place, and his regard for tho unfortunate sufferers to whom tho ward has as it has in more than one instance, stood between them and death. It was G. 30 p.m. before the operation was finished, and tho patient was „got into bed, whereas, in any decent and properlv equipped casualty ward it could easily have been done in an hour and a half. Part of tho delay, of courso, occurred through the absence of a trained nurse, who would have known exactly what was required, and who j could have got things ready so that tho | doctora might have gone ahead with their I work. For the want of proper equipment !

tho doctors had to bring with them appliances which should havo been in tho place. A casualty ward in a busy seaport like Lyttelton is an absolute necessity. In tho case under notico, if an attempt had been mado to send tho injured man direct to tho Christchurch Hospital he would certainly have died on the way. It is not necessary that there should be at Lyttelton a hospital in which patients need remain any length of time in the wards. If they are properly ' treated at once - and are allowed to rest until tlie.v have from the shock they can be removed after-, wards to Christchurch for tho prolonged nursing which may be neccssars'; but, as a matter of common humanity, it is ct least essential that the' interior of the present building should be thoroughly cleansed and painted; that a small operating theatre and matron's room should be provided; that 'tho ward should bo furnished with electric light; • and that tho services of a trained nurso should bo _ availablo. The necessary additions and improvements to the building could probably bo carried out for two or throo hundred pounds.