TUBERCULAR PATIENTS.

Marlborough Express, Volume LIV, Issue 126, 31 May 1920, Page 8

TUBERCULAR PATIENTS.

f P«s.M AnsmtfATlOW." 1

WELLINGTON, May 31. At ths Eeturaed Soldiers' Conference the question of I tubercular paiients was discussed fri>. length. Dr Boxer said he wished all T.B. men to understand that the Association iad their" best interests at heart. He stiongly urged tliat "a chesfc sweep up" be hiade. j The conference Seci'ded to urge that T.B. men, on being discharged from sanatoria, should be provided by the Defends Department; with pejrmian■ently suitably shelters, properly furaiished. with beds, bedding, etc.; that wlieie a patient owned a hpuso having a verandah the Defence Department should defray the expenses jor lia%ing the verandah glassed in and ■finished" with bedding, etc.; that the personnel of all sanatoria should, where possible, be ex-T.B. men; that compulsory examination be made every six months of T.B. men outpatients and .dischargees- (not for pensions) by a specialist or by the .specialist who treated the man's ease, and that the Defence Department be for/ the transportation of patients to the specialist; that it. be xecpmmended to D.G.M.S. to send a «best; expert "through New Zealand to examine all chest cases from the New, Zealand Expeditionary Force. . ,3>r Boxer" stated that in approach-, ing- the T.B, question the point of jcaking each man his own eniployer elibuld not be overlooked.- A man might have the:.greatest" willingness in the world, out sometimes, on account of. his disabilities,, he was not always able to work as. hard for an ipiiiployer as be would like to do. . It Avas decided that a special medical committee of five be set up by tho N.Z.R.S. to/act in ail advisory capacity to headquarters,/ the personnel to consist of three returned chest exports.'and two T.B. patients. The conference also resolved that tvijere medical superintendents of sanatoria recommended that treatment in Australia or elsewhere would hd beneficial to T.B. patients the cost of their treatment and transportation abroad should be borne by the Government.

i A deputation will wait on the Prim© Minister to-day to place remits of the conference regarding T.B. patients before fiim, and it was recommended that stress be made of the point mentioned by Dr Boxer. Mr Andrews (Auckland) suggested that a public meeting be held at the Town Hall in Wellington at the conclusion of the Conference to make Ir.own the Association's desires and demands.