THE AUCKLAND HOSPITAL ENQUIRY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 992, 6 March 1891, Page 33

THE AUCKLAND HOSPITAL ENQUIRY.

The report of the Commissioners (Sir Maurico O’Rorke and Dr Von Mirbach) appointed to enquire into the charges against the management of the Auckland Hospital was made public on Tuesday. The charges made against Dr Collins, Medical Supermtendant of the hospital, by ex-nurse Arnaboldi were that he had been guilty of inattention and want of skill in treating the case of Duncan McKenzie, who had expired after having his log amputated, and Joseph Berry, who had died after havinghishandamputated. The Commissioners reported that they were unable to discover any motive for Miss Arnaboldi making the charges unless it was sense of duty. The charges had been modified ai the enquiry progressed, Miss Arnaboldi’s counsel, Mr Rees, had dis - claimed any intention of imputing want of skill on the part of Dr Collins, but had limited the charge to delay. Mr Cotter had expressed a similar opinion with regard to McKenzie’s case, and Mr Meagher, who represented Mr Berry’s son, followed in a similar Etrain. With regard to Berry’s case the Comm ssioners considered that it had been proved that death was due to hemorrhage, and they were of opinion that when ihe ordinary means for stopping the bleeding had failed more effective measures should have been taken, and that amputation should not have been delayed for 12 hours. As to the case of McKenzie, they considered that the Doctor had shown a want of judgment in postponing amput&tioD, and that the limb was not so fully examined and dressed immediately after the man’s admission to the Hospital as it ought to have been. As the wound was sustained 32 hours before the injured man was brought to the Hospital they did not think that 19 hoars shoald have ©lapsed after that before the wound was thoroughly examined and dressed ; that the decomposing pus in the wound ought to have been attended to oftener than once every 24 hours, and that in such a serious case Dr Collins ought not to have waited eight or nine days before calling in the

regular consulting surgeon. The evidence of the Doctor and four other medical gentlemen had shown that the operation was very skilfully performed, and the Commissioners were of opinion that Miss Arnaboldi had committed an error of judgment in asserting that one of the flaps exhibited symptoms of gangrene when being folded over the stump. In conclusion the Commissioners state—'"We do not in any wise feel warranted by the terms of the commission to make enquiry into the causes that have led to the retirement of nearly all the medical practitioners of Anokland from attendance upon patients in the Auckland Hospital, but we cannot refrain from doplor* ing the faot that these patients reap no benefit from the akill and experience of the large body of Auckland medical practitioners, and that the interest that is invariably taken elsewhere by physicians and surgeons of eminence in the cause of suffering humanity and the benevolence they generally bestowed upon inmates of hospitals have either ceased to exist in Auckland or are not now allowed to be exeroised in the Anokland Hospital.” Dr Yon Mirbach adds that in his opinion Dr Collins ia the victim of unskilful and inadequate administration, as he (Dr Von Mirbach) considered it impossible for a surgeon to successfully work a hospital averaging 100 beds, practically singlehanded, in the absence of any systematic regulations framed for his guidance. As to the feeling that Miss Arnaboldi deserved thanks for her aotion, he thought that although under the present system of management it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to expose the unfortunate state of affairs existing in the Hospital without the action which she took, nevertheless the precedent was a bad one, and her act tends to ‘the subversion of that discipline which is absoluteiy necessary for the successful administration of such a public institution. By a prudent reform, such a state of affairs may be rendered impossible, and the necessity of and expediency for such an act as that of the nurse abolished for the future. Espionage by subordinates is quite destructive of confidence on the part of responsible officials, and of the respect due to them by their assistants. He submitted that the system of management of hospitals now prevailing in the Colony might well be reconsidered, with a view to removing them from the exclusive and unrestricted control of elected Boards.