ENGLISH HOSPITALS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 5 November 1929, Page 2

ENGLISH HOSPITALS.

DEFINITE PROGRESS MADE. DR. E. A. WALKER INTERVIEWED. “I think hospital management here is pretty well up to date, and New Zealand hospitals are run on very sound lines,” said Dr. E. A. Walker, or New Plymouth, formerly medical superintendent of the New Plymouth Hospital, who returned by the__Rangitikei after spending six months in Great Britain, during which time he visited a number of large hospitals in London and elsewhere, says the “Taranaki Herald.”

Definite progress all along the line was noted by Dr. Walker in his study of hospital and medical matters. This applied particularly to diagnosis. The most striking feature was the team work by which every case was analysed to its remote' details. The teams were composed of groups of specialists, and every system in the body received detailed examination. The English method in this respect was really founded on that developed by the Mayo Brothers at Rochester, U.S.A. The same thing was being done in New Zealand hospitals to a modified extent.

“A great deal of investigation is being done in regard to the use of radium for the treatment of cancer and other malignant growths,” said Dr. Walker. “Radium is being applied with new technique, and good results are hoped for. Certainly they have had results which they did not have with the old technique. The New Zealand system of hospital finance is regarded by Dr. Walker as superior to that of England and Scotland. where large general hospitals depend entirely on voluntary contributions and have no scale of fees, although some have paying wards. "While private hospitals, to which people who could pay were supposed to go, were very efficient, they had not the facilities to he: found in the large public hospitals. such as bacteriological, physio-therapy, and radio departments. People of moderate: moans bad more difficulty in getting the; best treatment than was the case in New Zealand.