A GHOULISH SUGGESTION

Northern Advocate, 18 August 1936, Page 6

A GHOULISH SUGGESTION

i p er press Association. — Copyright. * J PALMERSTON N., This Day. i “I was shocked to heaii* it; I did J 1 not think hospital boards could B J be so mercenary.” said Mr. J. K. g 1 Homblow, chairman of the Palm- * erston North Hospital Board, at a „ 2 meeting of the board yesterday, i ■ when referring to a question g 2 raised in Parliament by Dr. D. g g G. McMillan, member for Dun- i J edin, who suggested that wedding g g rings belonging to indigent g ■ women patients, who had no re- * J latives, were sold by hospital , g boards if the patients died. The g 1 suggestion was a ghoulish one, j [ added Mr. Homblow. g jj ' i 1 “I of such a thing, i | and I hope this board can show J 2 a clean sheet. It is ghoulish to g 1 take a ring from the finger of a J J dead person for selling it.” He ( 2 said that Dr. McMillan should g 1 have named the board, rather j 2 than cast reflection on all. g 1 1 g Mr. J. Boyce: “A statement i * like that should never have been ■ 2 made by a public man.” g i 1 ■ The question was also referred s 1 to today by the chairman of the ( 2 Auckland Hospital Board, the Rev. g « Wood. He said that at the Auck- » J land Hospital, rings were removed. B 2 from patients’ fingers in their own a * interests, and, if death followed, * 2 the practice was to keep them for g 1 two years, so that they might be n j claimed by relatives. If there i 2 was no claim made, the rings j I were sold and the money applied ( 1 to the maintenance fund. * 1 2 g In the board’s experience there ■ * was usually little to sell, as rela- g 2 tives were discovered. The same ■ g procedure applied to any jewel- 2 1 lery. The chairman added that g 2 when death occurred in a private j i home, the wedding ring was often 2 j removed and handed over to some a j member of the family. ®