SMALL HOSPITALS.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 16 March 1927, Page 7

SMALL HOSPITALS.

NOT APPROVED BY DIRECTOR. LARGER INSTITUTIONS BEST. AUCKLAND, March 11. That lie had. the greatest'faith in the larger hospitals, but not the same faith in the country hospitals, was stated by the Director-General of Health, Dr. T. H. A. Valintine, at a meeting of the Waikato Hospital Board when the question of patients' fees at the new To Kuiti Hospital was being discussed. Dr. Valintine said he did not like the idea of matters of life and death being left to one man as would be the case in a country hospital. The work in the base hospitals was excellent, but in the country hospitals it was not so. He cordially approved of maternity hospitals being established in the country, and it was only when it was proposed that Te Kuiti should have a maternity hospital that he gave his approval to the establishment of an institution there. It was as a maternity hospital that the Te Kuiti institution should be largely used. It should not be used for serious cases in which operations were involved unless it could not be avoided. He did not mean that he had no confidence in the Te Kuiti doctors, but he was perfectly sure that if the Te Kuiti hospital was to be run satisfactorily it must be conducted as a maternity hospital only. Emergencv medical cases should also be treated "there. The doctors at Te Kuiti worked very well together, but in some districts they did not agree and the local hospital was used as a means of ventilating their grievances.