AUCKLAND HOSPITAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19311, 26 April 1926, Page 7

AUCKLAND HOSPITAL.

Sir,—The inquiry which the Department of Health proposes to hold into thn administration of the Auckland Hospital will be welcomed by many. I trust, however, that its scope will be made sufficiently wide to cover several matters which urgently require attention. I refer particularly to the accommodation for the patients and facilities for their treatment. The hospital is greatly overcrowded. Within the limits of its means tho Hospital Board has clone its utmost to meet tho requirements of the sick. The medical superintendent and has assistants also do their utmost to apportion tho facilities among the cases in order of their application or urgency; but on admission mornings there are long queues of patients, many in a critical condition, who are waiting for beds to be made available for their treatment. Delay in admission of the long queue of patients suffering' may have serious consequences and lead to further organic complications, and in instances render the patient's condition so grave as not to yield to any form of treatment whatever. The hospitals cater for the health of tho community. They must be a first- charge on the rates-till sufficient is available to meet the requirements of the sick. The question is one of the health of the community, and to many a sufferer is a matter of life and death. There is no more pitiable sight than that from all forms of sickness and diseases. Manv applications for admission are now unduly delayed. The whole question is one of accommodation, and if the board stirs public opinion in the matter r«nd provides the accommodation required it will earn the gratitude of all whose symjiathv is with tha sick and the suffering*,