FIGHTING CONSUMPTION.

Evening Star, Issue 12523, 6 June 1905, Page 3

FIGHTING CONSUMPTION.

VIEWS OF THE MINISTER OF HEALTH. Dr Jennings, of Christchurch, was reported last week to have said to the Christchurch Hospital Board that Sir J. G. Ward, as Minister of Public Health, had stated' that, the establishment of annexes for the openair treatment of patients suffering from consumption was likely to have a prejudicial effect on the localities iu which they were erected. Sir Joseph has now forwarded the following telegram to Dr Jennings on the subject: " The Press Asociation report of your re-, marks as' to my views concerning consump-i tive homes shows that you are evidently under a misapprehension. I have not given expression to any such statement as that which you attribute to me. On the contrary, 1 have stated, wherever I have spoken, and iu reply to letters that I have received, during the last two years, that there was no danger from tho establishment of consumptive annexes or sanatoria. If your yemarks are founded on what I said at New Plymouth, you have probably fallen into error in consequence of a view which I expressed there- that I was opposed to any one place being utilised by all tho surrounding districts as a dumping-ground for unfortunate sufferers from tuberculosis. What I urged was that each district should be responsible for the care of its own sick, and that there was no reason why, under the legislation now on tho Statute Book, this should not be done by establishing annexes at. the various hospitals. I further stated, that to have one town placarded as being ■ the' centre for consumptives from several districts might convey a wrong impression to those who were not familiar with both the curative and preventative treatment. The tendency where a town was so placarded might be to depreciate its value through mistaken views. What I urged at New Plymouth I now reiterate-p viz., that with properly-equipped annexes to hospitals in many districts of the colony, with the best medical and nursing skill available, patients from those districts could be as thoroughly treated as at Te Waikato, Cambridge, repetitions of which or the establishment of other central institutions of a similar character I was opposed to, for the reason that they were very expensive, and would have tho effect of centring large numbers of patients on one place instead of them beiug treated in their own localities."