DOMINION HOSPITALS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3833, 18 August 1928, Page 4

DOMINION HOSPITALS.

INCREASE IN PATIENTS. EFFICIENCY OF TREATMENT. A progressive reduction in the percentage of deaths after operations, together with a higher ratio of recoveries after general treatment in public hospitals, arc features of the hospital statistics of the Dominion for the year ended December 31st last. An apparent anomaly is the statement that while the North Island has 50 public hospitals, equal to one for every 18,484 people, the South Island has 59 hospitals—one for every 8913 people, but while 47,150 persons were treated in the North Island, there' were only 25,005 in the South Island. This would appear to indicate either that the accommodation tax on northern institutions is greater, that they are larger, or that there are a good many more private hospitals in the. North Island than in the South. ONE IN TEN TREATED. Due, probably, to improved facilities for hospital treatment, rather than a higher incidence of disease, the number of persons treated to each 10,000 of the mean population continues to increase. For the year ended December 31 last, it was, for the Dominion, 50G, compared with 484 in the previous year and 392 in 1922, since when the rate has been steadily appreciating. One out of every 20 persons, including Maoris, in New Zealand, received some degree of medical treatment in public hospitals in 1927. Figures on which that computation is based refer only to indoor patients treated by public hospitals. If those treated in private institutions and others receiving medical treatment in their own homes were added, it would probably be found, states the review, that at least one out of every 10 people was under medical treatment during the year. In 1922, 1923 and 1924 the proportion of people treated in the North Island was less than the annual figure in the South, but since then the reverse has obtained. In the past year there were 513 to the 10,000 treated in the North Island, and 492 in the South Island.

HIGH RATIO OF RECOVERIES. Statistics relative to the success of treatment in hospitals are reassuring. Of the 72,755 persons treated during 1927 in public hospitals, 47,753 were discharged as recovered, 13,847 as relieved and 2585 as unrelieved. Deaths numbered 3782, or 5.20: per cent. The following table gives the percentages of the total cases of recovered, relieved, unrelieved, and deaths during each of the last six years: —

The proportion of deaths, it is noticed, is the lowest in the period under review and.marks a further step in the progressive improvement which has been taking place in the past six years. The percentage of recoveries is steadily rising at the expense of the relieved and unrelieved percentages. PREVENTIVE DISEASES TREATED. Principal among the diseases treated are adenoids or tonsils, of which there were G 259 cases last year. Other causes of treatment included miscellaneous injuries, 4333, appendicitis, 3910, fractures and dislocations, 3477, and tuberculosis, 2409. Each of the four exhibit practically a continuous increase since 1922, except that this year appendicitis treatments have been very slightly fewer. Adenoids and tonsils dealt with in 1926 and 1927, however, represent a remarkably large number of patients, last • year’s total being 45 per cent, more than in 1925. Of other diseases, scarlet fever is shown to have been remarkably prevalent in 1927, while diphtheria presented fewer cases than in any year of the past six. As in 1923 and 1926, influenza again accounted for a large number of treatments. Operations numbered 28,476, compared with 26,692 in the previous year, hut it is satisfactory to note the percentage of deaths of persons operated upon fell from 3.25 in 1925, and 3.19 in 1926, to 2.91 last year. The number of operations in each year is compared with the total number of hospital patients discharged or dying, i.e., excluding the number in hospital at the end of each year. The proportion (32 per cent, of cases operaeent. in 1925, 41,68 in 1926, and 41.90 in 1927. Of the 839 persons who died after operations, 173 were cancer cases, 70 appendicitis, 47 intestinal obstruction, 37 fractures, and 35 enlargement of the prostate gland. It is found that very high death ratios exist for intestinal obstruction (3*2per cent, of eases operated), enlargement of prostate (24 per cent.), cancer (21 per cent.), diphtheria (21 per cent.), and diabetes (27 per cent.)

UnreYear ered ed lieved Died 1922 25.74 29.29 4.70 5.83 1923 54.06 29.05 3.98 6.13 1924 58.08 25.31 4.40 5.55 1925 58.91 24,65 3.96 5.65 1926 63.94 20.20 3.88 5.61 1927 65.64 19.03 3.55 5.20