LEANING ON DUNEDIN

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 56, 30 November 1923, Page 5

LEANING ON DUNEDIN

WHY NOT SELF-HELP?

LIMITS OF RADIUM UNITS

BASED ON CHIEF CENTRES

Interviewed on tho subject of radium discussion in the South Island, the secretary of the Radium (Radiation) Appeal Committee, Mr. G. Mitchell, stated: — “A Press Association report of the proceedincs of the Christchurch Hospital Board might be interpreted, il not carefully read, as meaning that the board has come to a decision not very favourable to the radium move ment. As a matter of fact, the report shows that the_ board has not come to ■any such decision. Tlie Finance Committee of the board recommended that an attempt shpuld be made to secure radium emanation from the Otago HosnitaTßoard, in preference to appealing to the public of Canterbury for £IO,(KA) f'or a radium department at Christ church Hospital. And the Christchurch Hospital Soard postponed a decision on this point pending a consultation with tho Otago Hospital Board. The only positive action taken by the Christchurch Hospital Board, as reported in the Press Association telegram, was a decision that certain bequest money should be expended on appliances for radium treatment. Sb the Christchurch Board appears to have committed itself to securing radium appliances. but is seeking to obtain its radium emanation from Dunedin. Its action is an affirmation of the need of radium (without which there can be no emanation) in the treatment of disease. Other People’s Radium. “Tlie questions raised by the discussion before the Christchurch Hospital Board are these: (I) If a centre like Christchurch is to have radium of its own. how little can it get along with.? ; (2) if it is to rely on another centre s radium, in order to secure emanation for its own use. how can it (Christchurch) meet requirements in the Canterbury country districts? “Of course, it may be that the Christchurch Board may take up the attitude that its country districts can look after themselves. Whether that is so or not, it is not within my province to express an opinion, except to point out that the country towns of Canterbury may be in a different position from tho country towns of Wellington. The country towns of Canterbury are nearer Dunedin, and have therefore a much better chance of being within effective distributing radius for the rapidly decaying emanation. So, even if Canterbury’s capital and provincial towns became, jointly or seyerullv, customers of Dunedin, it does not follow that the same course is practicable for the capital and provincial towns of Wellington. “The whole question boils down to the fact that a given quantity of radium will produce only a given quantity of emanation, distributable within a given radius. For somebody to secure emanation, somebody else must possess radium. A customer for emanation does not add to the stock of radium, and the available stock of radium governs the situation. The district that subscribes money to buy radium provides for itself and for others also. A Dunedin Expert View. “Whatever reply Dunedin may give to its neighbour Canterbury in this matter, Dunedin’s attitude towards a radium department at Wellington Hospital has been expressed by Dr. L. E. Barnett. Professor of Surgery at Otago University, in no uncertain terms. Dr. Barnett writes to Dr. AV. E. Herbert, of Wellington :—‘AVellington should certainly have a thoroughly efficient radium department, and should cater for the needs of its own district. At tho present time, we have in Dunedin patients under radium treatment who have come from your province, and also patients from Auckland, Canterbury and Southland.’ In the same letter. Dr. Barnett states that, while Dunedin is taking northern patients, Dunedin has ‘only 186 milligrammes of radium, which cost us approximately £23 per. milligramme’ ; and he adds that Otago is trying to raise pubhc subscriptions to increase the 186 milligrammes to 500 (that is, to half a gramme), which he thinks ‘will suffice for the needs of Otago and Southland at any rate’ (no- mention of Canterbury). So while Otago is asking the public to more than double its radium —in order to treat Otago and Southland—Christchurch is talking about leaning on Otago. “At one end of the scale is the danger that one province will lean too much on another province. At the other end of the scale is the danger that provincial towns of limited size may try to ‘go on their own’ with an inadequate supply of radium salt. Such towns may well consider the following sentence in Dr. Barnett’s letter concemimr what Otago has done and aims to do: ‘We feel that we could lessen the number of failures from our radium treatment (and we never hide the fact that our failures have been many), if we had more radium and more convenient tubes for inserting it; and, in particular, if we had a radium emanation outfit and a deep X-ray. therapy installation to use in conjunction with radium.’ Big Centres and Small. “If radium and radium emanation treatment is to be provided! to best advantage. the country should be divided into units—designed according to population and to emanatiomdist.ributing facilities—that are financially able and willing to provide, at a given centre, sufficient radium to provide both kinds of treatment. Tlie four chief towns seem to be tlie natural nuclei of four such -units. A big centre that buys its emanation is not able to do much to help its hinterland. And a small town that works on inadeuate radium and appliances is not working to advantage. “Tho following statement by the Wellington Division of the British Medical Association speaks for itself: ‘Sufferers from cancer, from Auckland 1 to the Bluff, are travelling under painful conditions to Dunedin for treatment This committee confidently anticipates that the residents of the Wellington district will see to it that the unfortunate sufferers from cancer in their own district may very shortly be ab’e to receive just as efficient treatment as those in the Dunedin district. “The principles and practice of Otago do not encourage cither the shirking of its duty by a centre like Wellington, or tho assumption by smaller - towns of duties that are beyond them. r, t j “A statement by the New Zealand branch of the British Medical Association on this point would be welcome.