REPORT on PROVINCIAL HOSPITAL.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 14, Issue 1154, 20 May 1870, Page 3

REPORT on PROVINCIAL HOSPITAL.

Napier, May 17, 1870. Sib, — I have the honour to .report to you that, during the last financial year, there have been fifty-nine admissions into the Provincial Hospital ; seventeen of these have been members of the Armed Constabulary, and the others have, for the most part, consisted of the ordinary labouring population of the province. Of the diseases, little need be said here, possessing no public interest, and comprising the usual class to which the labouring population is prone, namely, fevers, rheumatism, fractured limbs, &c. I am happy in adding that only two deaths have occurred ; one, James Mackie, a hopeless and long-standing case of diseased liver, with dropsy ; the other, Jane McLeod, who was an inmate for only three days, being brought in in a moribund state. The other cases have offered in themselves and their results the satisfactory testimony of the humanity and usefulness of the institution. I may bo permitted here to express my entire approval of the appointment by the late Superintendent of a Board of Management. It has seemed to me to embody every desirability in the well working of the institution, both financially and otherwise ; and the Board has aided me most cordially in curtailing expenditure, short of not doing an injustice to those under our care. The Board has sanctioned the expenditure of a small surplus, voted in the last session, by supplying the Hospital with a complete set of surgical instruments, for the use of which it has heretofore been the custom of borrowing from the Imperial forces stationed at Napier; a source which is now denied us. Moreover, every province is furnished with such, to which private practitioners can have recourse in oases of importance or emergency. I have to regret that in consequence of

a severe accident, I have, for two months, been unable to attend personally to the duties of the Provincial Hospital. I feel sure that my absence was more than supplied by my friend, Dr. Spencer, who most willingly gave his time and skill, for which kindness both I and the province generally are his debtors. I have the honor to be Sir, Your most obedient servant, THOMAB HITCHINGS, Provincial Surgeon. To His Honor the Superintendent, Hawke's Bay.