GISBORNE HOSPITAL DOCTORS.

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 112, 21 May 1901, Page 2

GISBORNE HOSPITAL DOCTORS.

(To tho Editor of the Times.) Sir, —Various letters on tho above subject have appeared. In view of the abnormal number of fever eases —I am informed 73 in nine months —the query arises, have the number of deaths been increased through the physical inability of the ordinary staff of nurses to copo with the disease ? The same query arises in respect to the medical attendance. Tho gentleman who officiates as medical officer lias, I believe, a large private practice. This necessitates a constant strain, and last week he was called upon to go a long distance from town to attend a coroner’s inquest. Now, sir, would it not be very much in the public interest if two or more other medical men were associated with him to attend to tho hospital duties ? Would not the public feel it much more satisfactory if such au arrangement were arrived at ? The removal by death of one young man after another lias created a great feeling of uneasiness as to whether our local affairs and hospital are being so well managed as they ought to be. It will be very injurious to our district if outside our own area detrimental conclusions are avived at, and Gisborne gets a bad name in respect of being an unhealthy district to reside in. Dr Valentine lays very great stress on the importance of good nursing. Many years since, at a time of typhoid opidomic in England, Dr Higginbotham, who adhered strictly to a milk diet, avoiding the use of stimulants, had an abnormal number of cases of recovery, as compared with the experience of all other physicians who allowed stimulants.—l am, etc., J. Peckover. Gisborne, May 20.