IMMIGRANT'S ILLNESS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18296, 12 January 1923, Page 8

IMMIGRANT'S ILLNESS.

NOT YET RESIDENT A YEAR.

SANATORIUM FEES DUE.

HOSPITAL BOARD'S DILEMMA. [BY TELEGRiiFH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.} ';.., HAMILTON, Thursday. The question of liability for the sanatorium fees of an English immigrant sufering from tuberculosis was raised at a meeting of the Waikato Hospital Board to-day. The secretary, Mr. W. I. Conradi, said the patient had been in the country less than a year and had .resided in the Waikato Hospital district for 10 months. The board was not liable for his fees until he had been in the district 12 months. The man had been a member of the British Expeditionary Force and his case was one of genuine illness. He had no money to pay the weekly fee of £3 3s at the sanatorium. Several members were opposed to the board accepting the liability, but Mr. H. E. Tristram declared that the board should do what it could for the patient, even though he was an immigrant. The board's duty was to distribute charity, to aid the sick', and, where- possible, to assist in the checking of disease. This could not be done by passing such cases over. They should give what help they could in such cases. The man had served the Empire in the army and probably this was how he contracted his disen-sc. Mr. Wagstaff, while agreeing that assistance was necessary in certain cases, considered that there should be a stricter check kept on immigrants by the Board of Health. Persons entering this country were supposed to undergo a medical examination, both when they left their native countrv "and on arrival in the Dominion. If there was laxness by the heatlth authorities the ratepayers of a particular district- should not be saddled with expense as a result. Mr. Campbell Johnstone agreed, remarking that the expense of a diseased immigrant should be borne by the country of origin and not by the authorities of his adopted land. The board decided to pay the man's sanatorium fees. J