AQUESTION-FOR HOSPITAL COMMITIEES.

Grey River Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5554, 23 July 1886, Page 2

A QUESTION- FOR HOSPITAL COMMITIEES.

There is' trbuble' here just now with regard to the disposal of inebriates requiring curative treatment: It had hitherto bepn^tlwl p'rfetb'iice' to"* commit them 1 to Gaol, but the authorities there strongly, andr* on last Monday Mr B'eethanr,' S^M., acting, it is stated, on ' instructions from Govern-imenV-eommitted a -man Euffsring-fronr ?ddirmm. trmnens to ' the Christchurch i Hospital, He was admitted, bufc the | house surgeon wrote a vigorous protest to the Hospital Committee, who forthwith passed a resolution instructing the house surgeon not to admit any similar cases in future. ; The man was placed in a ward with other patients, owing (the surgeon said) to there being no other accommodation for him, and he kept the whole ward in a constant state of terror and sleeplessness during Monday night. He was then put in the padded cell and kept the whole institution awake by his shrieks for hours last night. To-day he was allowed to walk in the grounds, and he seized the opportunity to make good his escape from the premises, and has not yet been recaptured by the'"police. The Magistrate Js justified in his action by section 21 of the Police Offences Act, which empowers him to commit drunkards requiring medical treatment to an Hospital ; but it appears there is no provision for the reception of such cases at the Christchurch Hospital.