HOSPITAL VISITORS.

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

HOSPITAL VISITORS.

Sir, —In answer to "Patient Patient," I wish to state that the hospital to which I referred in my previous letter was the Waikato district hospital. I did not presume that his " vagrants" referred to the church-organised visitors. These are many outside the churches who aro doing noble sacrificial work in visiting hospital patients. Surely the "curiously-minded" can and do find something more congenial to do than invade the hospitals. While it is inevitable that you will find in some public wards a few who would prefer Ahe seclusion of a private room, one must not lose sight of the fact that after all it is a public hospital. Any attempt to pervade such an institution with the air of seclusion one feels in a private hospital is a dream of the idealist. and in many cases would bo cruel. I fail to see how the number of visitors awaiting admission should be allowed to regulate the punctuality of the opening of the ward doors. Granted that Auckland Hospital will "suffer" from more visitors than anv other of the four central hospitals, but what about the number of wards to be visited? Sociable Patient.