FREE AMBULANCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 151, 23 December 1938, Page 6

FREE AMBULANCE

MR. CARMAN'S VIEW

INTERESTS OF PATIEHTS

; "Any argument I have fs simply in \ the interests of hospital patients. I| ;am riot concerned with anything else," jsaid Mr. A. H* Carman to "The Post" ! today in reference to the reply by Sir Charles Norwood, president of the iFree Ambulance Board, to complaints made by Mr. Carman as a member of ithe Hospital Board that country patients were not receiving: from the ambulance the same service as town ! patients were. "The complaints were made in' my capacity as- a representative of the Makara County area on the Hospital Board," said Mr. Carman. "I have previously had to lodge similar complaints, but here were two definite cases of which I had the full particulars. It was my duty to. present the cases to the board and to ask the Hospital Board representative on the Free Ambulance Board to have them investigated. . : SERVICE IN OUTER DISTRICT. "I have no comment to make on the service given by the ambixHaace to the city area, but 1 am supplying the full particulars of several cases where the attention given in the outer district has not been up to standard. My interest is solely that of consideration for hospital patients, and the board has always been given to understand that full' co-bperatiort exists in conveying out-patients and! others to and from hospital .as required. ■■.... "My main contention is- that ,if tfafe hospital's requirements are more than the Free Ambulance, can fulfil,, either from cost .or from policy, them, the Hospital Board should either increase its present contribution, of £1500,, or else provide its owra ambulance service. The details of; the two cases referred toy and' others, will be given tothe secretary of the Hospital Board; and I do- not propose to comment on them, further at this juncture,, pend~ ing an investigation, except to correct; the impression that the boy's father: had experienced trouble with the ambulance previously. On the contrary, he had nothing but praise for the service and it was, with, the desire to> save trouble for the ambulance that he arranged with friends to convey the boy to hospital, ' "I sincerely hope there is no< differentiation.- between' town and country,; but surely.a case is* either definitely one for the ambulance or it is not. The boy referred to had his leg in fresh plaster, and was told not to walk on it for two days. The hospital almoner rang for an ambulance to take him home, but they refused. If they were right in their refusal,, why did they convey him to the railway station? . . "The inference is that Tawa Flat was too far,,, but had his home been in the city he would have been taken right home. , "I hope any uncertainty as to tne service to be provided by the Free Ambulance will be cleared up, so that the Hospital Board will know to what extent its , needs will be met,"' Mr. 1 Carman added.