CRUEL DOCTOR

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 8 November 1924, Page 5

CRUEL DOCTOR

NURSES ’ ALLEGATIONS.

SERIOUS STATEMENTS,

ROYAL COMMISSION,

BY CABLE—PBESS ASSOCIATION—COPY BIGHT

(Received Nov. 8, 10.10 a.m.) MELBOURNE, Nov. 8. Remarkable evidence was given before the Royal Commission inquiring into allegations by members of the staff of the Kew Asylum against the junior medical officer of maladministration and cruelty to patients. One of the nurses gave evidence that this doetor extracted a patient’s teeth in the open air without anaesthetics or other necessary precautions for the sake of obtaining dental experience, and also that lie experimented upon unwilling patients in order to demonstrate to nurses the use of surgical instruments. In order to show her how to do it he got her to draw a tooth. Another nurse gave similar testimony. She added that hypodermic injections were given patients as a punishment, and not as a sedative, because they were naughty. Patients afterwards complained of sickness and soreness. Witness declared that both nurses and patients were afraid of the doctor. Other allegations involved are the bringing of liquor into the asylum, removing the fence dividing male and female patients, want of proper clean: liness regarding clothing, insufficiency of clothing, cruelty in forcing patients to bathe in the open in wintry weather, and telling indecent stories to the nurses.