HEALTH MINISTER'S VIEW.

Evening Star, Issue 18717, 20 August 1924, Page 10

HEALTH MINISTER'S VIEW.

HIGH PERCENTAGE OF CURES. Sir Maui Pomare, replying to the criticisms, said that the department’s commitment was £140,000 to bring its building programme up to an efficient state. Of that amount £120,000 would be expended before the end of the next financial year. (“ Hear, hear.”) The farming activities at the institutions had resulted in receipts totalling £13,195, and after meeting their own requirements in vegetables they distributed the surplus among other institutions. Surely the record of cures showed that patients should not abandon hope. The suggestion that insanity could be easily detected came from someone with no experience. There was one class of patient which could argue his case with more logic than any member of the House; yet he was insane. Nevertheless, if there were sane people in asylums, let members give him their names. THE AUCKLAND CASE.

Sir Maui Pomare went, on to say that with all the faults there wore few mistakes in the system of control and admission. “What "were border-line cases?” asked tho Minister. AVould the member for Gisborne tell him where insanity began and where it left off? Ho did not think a single member could do so. Mr Savage: Medical men, have told me. Sir Maui Pomare : “You have been told by medical men, but you do not know yet what a. border-line case is.” The Minister suggested that if special institutions were built for so-called border-lino iases, they would be hardly finished before they were called asylums, and then all relatives of an insane person would want their patient in a border-line institution, so that the main asylums would he only brandies of the other. It was an impossible suggestion. There wore, institutions for neurotic eases, some being subsidised by the State, but they need not call them halfway houses. There were in mental hospitals hundreds of people who went, there voluntarily, because they found benefit from the treatment, lie was astonished to hear an ex-Minister of Health make the startling statement: “Abandon hope all ye who enter here.” What a misleading statement to make when ho should know that 54.69 per cent, of persons who went into our asylums came out cured! DEFENCE OF MEDICAL SUPERINTENDENT. Mr Wilford: I think you have misapplied the statement. Sir Maui Pomare: It amounts to tho same thing. As for the Auckland case, the man was committed at the instigation of his own son. Mr Isitt: When?

The Minister: “On June 13, with a sworn declaration and the certilicates of two medical men, as provided by law.” The Minister read the summary of delusions from which the patient was said to have suffered, one being that a child by his wife was not his. The Minister added that it came out in evidence that this was no delusion, but a fact. The man was taken before a magistrate, who, on the sworn medical statement, committed him to a mental hospital. That had nothing to do with the Mental Hospitals Department, so why should they shoulder the blame? Acording to law, within twentyfour hours of his admission the medical superintendent had to report as to a patient’s mental condition. Dr Beattie committed no dereliction of duty. He made this report. Mr Lysnar : Did the magistrate do his duty ? Sir Maui Pcraare : I am not talking about whether the magistrate did or did not do his duty. When a mam comes to the asylum we take a hand. Within twenty-four hours of his admission the medical superintendent has to report, and forward to us a full statement. He did so, and reviewed the medical statements. On June 14, the day after the committal, he reported; “I am unable to make a preliminary statement of this man’s mental condition until the attacks mentioned in the medical certificate are corroborated. The statements made might be proved by the facts.” The Minister asked if Dr Deattie was wrong in this. He waited and watched to see whether the certificates of admission were right or wrong before he took action. Mr Lysnar : Ho could have decided it otherwise. Mr Wilford : He was quite right. Sir Maui Pomare : Of course he was, and any sane member in this House would say he was right, (Laughter.) Ho went on to say that Dr Beattie, being unable to reconcile the medical statements by his own observation, a further certificate was required in fourteen days. Therefore, on June, 27, lie wrote ; “ I am about ful' as to whether Mr King is suffering from delusional insanity.” Thus, said the Minister, Dr Beattie was not going to shoulder the responsibility of sending the man out. He might have committed some murder. Mr lysnar ; Ho shrinks from his duty. The Minister retorted that Dr Beattie did more than his duty. Pie recognised chat was right, and appealed to the Supremo Court, as he was allowed to do by statute. That bo did right was proved by the case. Supposing he had dismissed the man, and he went out and killed his Wife, there would have been a. howl, and the Government would have been called on to dismiss Dr Beattie. Mr Lysnar : You had nothing to say about the magistrate ? The Minister ; I have nothing to do with the magistrate. He docs not come under the Mental Hospitals Department. (Laughter.) The Minister assured tho member for Kiccarion that tho building he spoke of had been started, and would be finished before long. He was pleased that there were members of the House who took such great interest in these institutions, and looked into matters for themselves. Attendants in mental hospitals got. 121 days’ leave annually, and their conditions were not so onerous. Tho dark corridors belonged to very old buildings, and were not found in the modern ones. There had not been a case of asylum attendants becoming insane. Mr" Witty : I can bring you two or three. The Minister suggested that insanity must have been coming on before they entered the .service. Tho department was committed to a large building programme, and he thought the Minister of Finance was very patient over the demands.