CONTROL OF THE ANNEXE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17269, 19 September 1919, Page 4

CONTROL OF THE ANNEXE.

tj Sir -At every - meeting of the Hospital Board the question of the control of the military hospital comes up for discussion and every time members take the opportunity of criticising the Defence Department. Why is the Hospital Board, which is supposed to have lost money over the running of the hospital, so anxious to have control again ? The fact is that when the board had control, it did not treat the men properly, but blundered along in any slip-shod manner, and is now trying to hide its faults behind abuse of the Defence Department. Mr. J Ro We states that the men are not getting th» treatment that they should get, and that they are not getting fair play. He would have been more correct had he said that under the board, the men did not get the treatment that they should have got but that they were only now getting fair'play since the Defence Department have had control. Mr. C'oyle says that it would be worse for the soldier patients if the De fence Department took complete control I can assure Mr. Coyle that the men are quite willing to make the change, for thev know that they have nothing to lose and everything to gain by such a change To take one instance, the question of food When I entered this hospital last February the food was disgraceful. It wa always cold, badly cooked, tasteless and unappetising, being altogether unfit for hospital patients. Since the Defence De ! partrnent has taken control, after many ! complaints from the Soldiers' Committer I the food has improved a little, but even , Sow gannpt be called gpgd. It be I

-—•— " "' ■"■"" ■■"''■'•■■~~ M ■ '.'"---'■] to everybody's advantage if the Defer,;;*. I Department would reaEss its responsi- ' bility in the matter, cut the painter, ana tell the Hospital Board that it wants to have nothing further to do with it. Thei>.« 1 we could say that we were in a hospital at last, and no longer in a fifth-rate board- * ''■■ inghonse. T. A. Bishop, ' v, Chairman Soldiers' Committee, Auckland ~¥* Military Hospital.