INEBRIATES IN HOSPITALS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 751, 23 July 1886, Page 20

INEBRIATES IN HOSPITALS.

(united press association.' Christchurch. July 21. There is trouble here just now with regard to the disposal of inebriates requiring curative treatment. It had hitherto been the practice to commit them to Addington gaol, but on last Monday Mr Beetham, R.M., acting, it is stated, on instructions from Government, committed a man suffering from delirium tremens to the Christchurch Hospital. He was admitted, but the House Surgeon wrote a vigorous protest to the Hospital Committee, who forthwith passed a resolution instructing the House Surgeon not to admit any similar cases in future. The man was placed in a ward with other patients, owing (the Surgeon said) to there being no other accommodation, and he kept the whole ward in a constant state of terror and sleeplessness during Monday night. He was then put in the padded cell, and kept the whole institution awake by his shrieks for hours last night. To-day he was allowed to walk in the grounds and seized the opportunity to make good his escape from the premises, and has not yet been recaptured by the police. The Magistrate is justified in his action by section 21 of the Police Offences Act, which empowers him to commit drunkards requiring medical treatment to a hospital, but it appears there is no provision for the reception of such cases at the Christchurch Hospital.