UNDUE DELAY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 198, 22 July 1937, Page 12

UNDUE DELAY.

ADMISSION TO HOSPITAL. COMMISSION’S VIEW. “The evidence satisfies us that there was undue delay in the admission of this patient, but that delay had no influence on the ultimate death, which was inevitable. Such delay ma.y in rare instances occur in any hospital unless necessary safeguards are provided.” This is the finding of the Royal Commission, which inquired into the administration of the Napier Hospital after investigating the .circumstances surrounding the admission to the hospital on April 29, 1937, a.nd the treatment thereafter, of the son of Mr F. W. Berry, of Puketapu. “We recommend as an alternative method to that followed that the senior nurse in the reception department should have power to take action if the medical officer is not readily available,” says the Commission’s report. “She should in such exceptional ca.ses have power to send the patient to bed in a reception or examination room. “The medical evidence is unanimous, as regards the treatment of this unfortunate boy. that he received all necessary treatment after his admission, and that.such treatment could not have been improved.”