HOSPITAL INQUIRY

Grey River Argus, 1 August 1935, Page 5

HOSPITAL INQUIRY

Auckland Children DEATHS AFTER ADMISSION. (Per Press Association). AUCKLAND, July 31. Members of ihe Hospita. Board held a special inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death from bronchial pneumonia, in the hospital on June 25th, of Derek Quinton, aged six months, sou of Mr and Mrs l'\ H Quinton, of New Lynn. Further comp aints regarding the treatment of his son in the Auckland Hospital were also made bv William Morrissey, of Kingsland, at a speciu-J meeting of the Board. The inquiry regarding Derek Quinton arose out of the receipt' of the Board of a lebter from Quinton, alleging his child had received inadequate treatment in the hospital. The substance of Quinton’s allegations was that there had been a delay in admP ting the child that it was bathed and placed in a cold bed on admission, and that no doctor saw it between, the time of admission and death, about four houriy .later. In the finding the Board members stressed th e need for a stronger medical staff, and an improvement in the admission system It was decided that the Board should declare as iC.M finding that the inquiry demonstinted the need for a larger medical staff, with a proportion of senior men. It was decided to appoint a sub-commit-tee to investigate the question of admissions and th e early appointment of a night admitting officer. Nursle White, who was on duty in the ward when the child Quinton wa> admitted, said it was not barbed, but was dressed in warm c othes in the bathroom and then brought back to the ward, where it was placed in a bed. warmed by hot-water bottles. It was admitted alt 7 p.m. No doctor saw it until Dr. Keenan came to the ward about 9 p.m. Mrs Quinton said she had waited about twenty minutes in the wai'tingrc’om before her baby was admitted. She saw no doctor then, nor did she see one in the ward. When she and her husband left the hospital about 8.30. no dodtor had examined the child. Dr. McGill said that Dr. Keenan had been relieving him on the night in question. The latter had been working on an urgent case in another part, or the hospital, and went to see the child Quinton as soon c : his urgent' work was finished.

‘ ‘ One thing I frankly do not understand is how there came to be a delay of twenty minutes in-'the waitingroom.” said Dr. J. W. Craven, Medical Superintendent. “Even a wait of ten minutes would have been too long. In this case, there was nothing to indicate that it was urgent. If there was a delay of two hours before a doctor saw the child 1 Jo uot think that' made the slightest- difference from the medical point of view. With regard 'to our resident staff, there are never less than five qualified and registered medical practitioners on duty night and day. However, I think we shall need more in future. Dr. Keenan, whose name has been mentioned m this case, is no longer on the staff, but it is on y fair 'to him to point out that lie put in his resignation on May 29th long before the baby Quinton came into the hospital. He resigned in order to go to England. Mr W. Wallace, chairman of the Board, said that wha't concerned him was that Dr. Keenan should have said in his written statement that he saw the child at 7.30 p.m.( when he did not' see it until nine o’clock. Tne nurses had given their evidence in a satisfactory, straightforward way, but the doctors had not. In the other ease, the boy, Desmond Wallace Morrissey, aged three years, died in the hospital on May 29th, while a cisternal punetur e was being performed as treatment for a form ot meningitis. A't an earlier inquiry the Board decided that the correct treatment had been followed. In asking for the inquiry to be re-opened, Mr Morrissey said that Dr. R. J. McGill, who per formed the operation, had admitted at the Coroner’s inquiry that he had punctured a blood vessel during the operation. Mr Morrissey . disagreed with witnesses at the earlier inquiry that there was no trope of recovery from influenzal meningitis, and submitted that the operation on his son should have been carried out in the operating theatre and not in the ward. The inquiry came to an abrupt end when Dr. McGill refused to answer any questions by Morris’sey. The Board had accepted his statement at the previous inquiry, he said, and he had nothing further to add to it'. If necessary he would discuss the matter further in private with Morrissey. This offer Morrissey declined. The Board expressed confidence in Dr. McGill’s work.