NEW ZEALAND PRAISED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19511, 15 December 1926, Page 14

NEW ZEALAND PRAISED.

HIGH HOSPITAL STANDARD. DR. MacEACHERN'S EULOGY* [FROM ODE OWN" • CORRESPONDENT.] VANCOUVER, Nov. 17. An appreciative review of the hospital systems of Australia and New Zealand was made at the annual meeting of the American Congress of Surgeons by Dr. W. T. MacEachern, who recently toured the Commonwealth and the Dominion. He dwelt on the high standards of nursing, provision for chronic and incurable cases, and the organisation and co-ordina-tion of hospitals to prevent overlapping. There was more co-ordination than in America, he said. Dr. MacEachern commended the administration by means, of hospital boards, and the division of the finance between the State, by means of subsidy, and the people, with their voluntary contributions. He said he found high standards set for nurses, long periods of training, but excellent, results. He found no halfway house between the high-class nursing home and the public ward in the general hospital, showing that those not in possession of means could bfii assured of the best possible treatment in .hospital. Australia, said Dr. MacEachern, was considerably ahead of America in the handling of incurable cases. There were excellent, extensive hospitals lor these cases, where hope in the recovery of the patient was' always maintained. New Zealand had the most enlightened people in the world. The medical men were extraordinarily keen on the welfare of their patients. _ What was best for the. patient was their dominant idea. Dr. MacEachern said he admired especially the businesslike system of the New Zealand hospitals. The maternity work in New Zealand- was a revelation, and he made extensive eulogy of the treatment in the Dominion of tuberculosis cases, from which America could learn much. The Karitane system came in for much favourable notice: at the hands of Dr. MacEachern, who entertained the congress with interesting lantern slides, illustrating hospitals in Australia and New Zealand.