VALUE OF SUNLIGHT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20230, 15 April 1929, Page 12

VALUE OF SUNLIGHT.

DISEASES OF. CHILDREN.

IMPORTANT VICTORIAN SCHEME.

TREATMENT OF CRIPPLES.

[l-riO.M OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] SYDNEY. April 4. In view of the controversy among doctors in Britain, it is of interest to noto that one of the best equipped hospitals in Australia for treatment with sunlight and artificial rays is a branch of the. Melbourne Children's Hospital, nearly completed on the seafront at Frankston at a cost of £90,000. It will cost £14,000 a year to run. It will be able to treat nearly all tho child cripples in Victoria by heliotherapy, hydro-therapy, and ultra-violet ravs.

Ilclio-lherapy, or sunlight treatment, was begun at the Children's Hospital in Melbourne in 1922. Bono diseases wcro treated on tho balconies. The demand for the treatment increased to such an extent that new quarters had to bo provided. Tho success of tho treatment continued when tho patients wcro transferred to a more suitable, locality, and the hospital authorities reported that within tho first 12 months many chronic tuberculosis and paralysis cases, who had been in splints for three or four years, wcro walking. Although tho maximum ago for entry into the Children's Hospital is 14 years, for orthopaedic cases the. limit has been increased to 16 years The new hospital has room for 100 patients, and there is spaco for considerable expansion as .soon as funds will permit. Provision is being made for charity cases only, but if necessary it could ho converted into a full community hospital. The question is being asked whether it is fair to deprivo tho children of tho wealthy and tho others who do not need charity t>f tho benefits of such a modern, up-to-dato institution, which promises to do sucjl a vast amount of good. It is pointed out that the diseases that are to bo treated are by no means confined to tho children of the poor. But this point raised the whole question of hospital administration —a question facing New Zealand just as much as Australia —and a satisfactory solution of tho difficulties seems to be as far off as ever.

All tho treatment at this new Melbourne hospital will be given under ono roof. In a special operating block, with a post operating ward, all patients after operation can recover sufficiently beforo going among the other patients again. There is an X-ray department, laboratories and modern equipment generally. Thcro is a State school on tho property for elementary education, and boys will bo taught the rudiments of somo craft and tho girls domestic science. Another department is for psychotherapy, or massage, and re-education of joints and muscles for cases such as infantile paValysis. There will also he a hydro-therapy department, in which is a shallow bath of sea water, which will bo irrigated over the child with small pipes as he lays in tho bath. Artificial rays will give sun treatment when the weather is dull.