THE HOSPITAL FRACAS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3997, 14 May 1884, Page 3

THE HOSPITAL FRACAS.

The following letters were read yesterday at the meeting of the Hospital Committee from the matron and a patient respectively:— .. I beg to bring before your notice the fact of my having to give into custody a patient named Peter Caulfield. On Saturday evening the 3rd instant, the man in question, returned to the hospital in a disgraceful state of intoxication. The circumstance was imparted to me by tho wardsman, and after seeing Caulfield I decided that it was necessary for tho safety of the patients that- he should be removed, and finding myself in charge of tho hospital, I at once sent for a constable to take Caulfield away. In the meantime nurso M'Gillivray and myself endeavored to detain him on the verandah, so as to keep as much noise as possible out of the wards. It was more needful to do this on account of a poor dying man in No. 2 ward, to whom Caulficld's language and violent manner must have been very distressing. During this time another male patient, Patrick Matthews, returned intoxicated. He, however, behaved quietly. Tho rost of the patients in the hospital were very quiet and orderly, and with tho exception of two or three who were out on pass exceeding the time specified thereon, I have . no further complaint to make. Gentlemen, —Having come into the hospital on April 4th for an operation to my leg, you will kindly allow me to lay a few facts before you of the goings on of men (or fiends) who came in this hospital suffering from (as the diet sheets call it) alcoholimun, or D.T. The first one who came in suffering.from the complaint was a man of the name of Prebble. This man was mad for over a week. He would jump out of his bed and chase tho " divils " (as ho would call them) up and down the ward, and he would also tear the shirts off his back and say they were " devils." The nurso gave him another shirt and he did the same with it, and then convalescent patients have to stay out of their beds to watch the like. Men were also got from the outside to watch him- I —a nice job, certainly, to watch a man in the "blues!" But tho most disgraceful above all is that female nurses have to be where the likes of these men are, and have to attend on them. In this case it was, to say the least, disgusting for females to be in the place, to say nothing of the annoyance to the patients. He came in on April 4th, and went out on the 26th. The next case of the kind was a man by the name of Diman, who came in on April 21st. He was not so bad, although ho would wako up allhands whenhe started howling in the night. The next caso was a man named Pattson. Ho came in on April 24th, and on the 26th started his capers by pelting fruit about the ward Ho carried on his games all night and three of the convalescent patients had to watch him in turns for tho safety of others. The same evening one of the patients, named M'Gahey, came home intoxicated, and grossly insulted the nurse, and wanted to fight somo of tho patients. The ward was more like a mad house than a hospital that night, and sleeping was simply a farce all night. Pattson cleared out next morning. M'Gahey was sent to the Old Men's Refuge. I hope, with these facts before you, you will be able to alter tho existing state of affairs. Since I have closed my first report another scene has occurred hero. On Saturday evening, May 3rd, two patients, named Matthews and Caulfield,. having leave (or else took leave) to go out, came back intoxicated. The man Matthews was quiet and submissive, but Caulfield carried on in a disgraceful manner, and was very abusive in his language, which was horrible to the oars of men, let alone women. He saluted the nurse in this way:—"Nurse, take off my ib- y boots." It is also very dangerous to be where tho like are, for had it not been

that I had tho use of my arms, and for other patients, I might have had something more serious to report, for ho came tumbling over me as I sat by my bed, and could not get out of his way. The matron did wisely in giving him in charge of the police