TUBERCULOSIS

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 128, 2 June 1922, Page 8

TUBERCULOSIS

W. BLACKMORE'S STRICTURES

; DR. VALTNTINE IN'REPLY-

The Director-General of Health; (Dr. T. 'H. A. Valintine) replies at length in the Press to the strictures of Dr. Biackmore (of Christchurch) on the alleged lack of progress in the campaign against consumption in New Zealand. In the course of his statement, Dr. Valintine says:— : „ ' , "Dr. Blackmore's statement: 'That promises made to the public eight years ago with regard to the erection of a, fresh' air home for children have not yet been fulfilled, although the prevention 'ofi tuberculosis in children is a matter of■ absolutely supreme importance.' This is not true. The subsidy for the home has been promised by the Government since 1919, and will be paid, but at the suggestion of the North Canterbury Hospital Board it was agreed by the Department that owing to the financial stringency it would be wiser to put off the building of the home for at least a year, as it was not a matter of urgency. "Dr. Blackmore's statement: 'That as regards the campaign against consumption in New Zealand generally, no real i progress has been made in the last twelve years.' This is not true. In place of one partly-developed sanatorium at Otaki for thirty patients, and one unsuitable ■■ and generally unsatisfactory sanatorium near Cambridge for sixty-two patients, w.e have now two well-found sanatoria in the North Island. | Great improvements have been carried out at the Otaki institution, and recently a resident medical officer was appointed. Owing: to the establishment of the Pukeora Sanatorium it has been possible to close the obsolete and costly institution near Cambridge, which, by the way, was not 'erected' by the Department, as Dr. Biackmore states.

"There are now 175 beds for male patients at Pukeora and 40 beds for female patients atOtaki, a total of 215 as compared witli 62 for males at Te Waikato and 35 at Otaki, a total of 97 in 1914. And, though Dr. Blackmore raises the quibble that most of the beds at Pukeora are for soldier patients, there are at least 75 beds used by and available for civilians, and so far we have been able to deal promptly with all the demands for" admission which come from tfce.. hospital districts of the North Island. The'factTemains that we have in the North .Island more than double the amount of sanatorium beds that we had in 1914. In that number •I am not including the special and excellent accommodation provided forT.B. patients by the Auckland, Waikato, Hawkes Bay, Palmerston North, and Wellington Hospital Boards. Apart fromrthifi , accommodation in the North Island, the Nelson, Timaru, Otago, and Southland Boards in the South Island have provided special accommodation i$ connection with their hospitals for the treatment of patients suffering from tuberculosis.

"Unless they are by way of merely abusing his professional colleagues of the Health Department, it is difficult to understand Dr. Bkckmore's strictures in view of: (1) The proved declining death rate from, tuberculosis in New Zealand; (2) the exceptionally low death rate from this disease in New Zealand in comparison with other countries; and (3) the fact •: that the campaign against tuberculosis is by no means discontinued."