HOSPITAL ORGANISATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20491, 17 February 1930, Page 12

HOSPITAL ORGANISATION.

• Sir,—May I make one or two suggestions which I think Hospital Boarcl, the superintendent tind the members oi the honorary staff will find worthy of consideration. The first is, that all patients on discharge li-om . hospital should receive a certificate signed by the house surgeon in charge of the ward briefly stating the duration of their stay in hospital, the nature of their illness and (most important) the nature of the operation performed (if any). At l;he present time many patients ou leaving hospital: have no idea what operation has been performed, and in liome cases do not even know the nature of their illness. Moreover, the information on this certificate would be of great value to any medical - man subsequently seeing the case, and to the hospatal authorities themselves should the patient, .'have to be ; readmitted for any reason at a later date to the same or another hospital. Thfi practice of issuing such certificates is carried out in some of the leading London hospitals. The second suggestion is that special departments and wards should be established for genitourinary and gynaecological work. At the present time these cases are all sent to general surgical waa'ds, where they are seen by surgeons who may or may not* be specialists in this class of work. Thisstate of affairs does, not tend to promote efficiency in treatment or administration. The hospitals of thu other centres —Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin—utilise the services of their specialists and have special departments for these branches of surgical work. Wellington Hospital has made provision in recent extensions for a genito-unnary department with a separate operating theatre for this highly specialised class of work. It is regrettable tha Auckland Hospital, the largest in New Zealand, lags behind in this respect; i would like to make it clear that the est.a - lishment of these -departments would not involve any additional extensions or ex- v pense. It is simply a matter of reorganisation and utilisation of the existing accommodation i»nd facilities. Efficiency-