CONSUMPTION PATIENT

Evening Star, Issue 17922, 18 March 1922, Page 12

CONSUMPTION PATIENT

PALMERSTON NORTH CASE.

. “It is a serious state of affairs and a disgrace to the administration,” remarked Mr W. Murdoch, of Shannon, at tho last mooting of tho Palmerston North Hospital Board, when referring to the case ,of a man who, it was stated, although in an advanced stage of consumption, had been allowed by the department to leave the ■hospital in Wellington and rejoin his wife and family (two children of tender years). Mr Murdoch said all four'persons,.were now living in : town under the jurisdiction of the board. The whole family slept in one small room, and during the daytime the man was allowed to roam about the streets and haunt public places, to the. detriment of the health' of the whole comrAunity. The matter had been reported to- tho department, but. it merely temporised with tho complaint. To cap all, it had gone back on its offer to provide the man with a tent in order that the health of the wife and children might be safeguarded. The department, Mr Murdoch said, was wonderfully zealous when it came to scouring the country for rats; but it overlooked the fact that while bubonic plague was not yet in tho Dominion, another dread disease—white plague —was in our midst. To all appearances the department, remained inactive in tho matter.

The board decided to provide the family, who are in very poor circumstances, with a bed in order, that tho. father might sleep in the house apart from the,family.