TUBERCULOSIS HOSPITAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22010, 17 January 1935, Page 8

TUBERCULOSIS HOSPITAL

The conference yesterday between the Director-General of Health and the • Hospital Board concerning accommodation for tuberculosis patients should be the beginning of better things in this department of the board's work. For a long time the arrangements have been unsatisfactory. Whatever the value of the treatment available, the housing of such cases has been more or less of a makeshift order. It is high time that accommodation fully suitable and adequate should be available—on a site separate from the main hospital and the infirmary. At present 158 cases are receiving treatment—--50 of them in the main ward's of the hospital, 93 at the infirmary, and 15 at sanatoria far distant from the city. This means that 50 are occupying beds that should be available at the main hospital for its own purposes, that 93 are housed on a site quite unsuitable, and that 15 amenable to treatment near Auckland have had to be sent away for lack of facilities near at hand. of the patients and of the main hospital have not been properly served. Statistics quoted by the Director-General show that, while the death rate from tuberculosis in New Zealand has been reduced until the figure is now the lowest in the world, the average number of deaths from this disease in the Auckland district, is 110 annually and the estimated number of active cases in the area is 1125. These figures argue a local need beyond the facilities now provided. Yet it would be wrong to try to overtake it by extending the accommodation on the present local sites; the right thing is special provision on a separate site offering the conditions requisite for treatment on modern lines. These condition's are understood, and a desirable location should not be difficult to find. Care must be exercised, of course, in the matter of cost. Considerable outlay will be involved, and extravagance is to be avoided. Any serviceable policy must take account of all the facts, including the financial. Yet the need is so imperative that the policy ought not to be delayed. The Director-General has promised to recommend that authority be given for the erection of the required hospital as soon as a suitable site has been selected and plans for the building are prepared and approved. On the strength of this promise the Hospital • Board should at once prepare a policy and detailed proposals.