TOO MANY PATIENTS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8183, 26 July 1912, Page 1

TOO MANY PATIENTS

ST. HELENS HOSPITAL CHRISTCHURCH institution in A FIX. ONLY SIXTEEN BEDS. SPECIAL TO THE "TIMES." CTIIUSTCn UHCIf, July 35. During last year 2'12 b.ihies were born in the- Cliriolchurcli St. Helen* Hospital. The stall - also provided mimes in 81 ma'ernity eases outside lie- institution. Home of these latter (ass -were allended in. this homes of tho patients. ft. will probably surprise the public to learn that others were attended in in tho neighbourhood of tlit- hospital, owing to thorn being no beds available in the institution. Inquiries into the position wort 1 made by a member of the ‘‘Press’ staff. He ha rued Unit there were only sixteen beds in the institution, and that it frequently oeenrred that these were all occupied. If a patient was brought to the institution when, there was no room, she simply had to be taken to one of the neighbouring cottages ami there be attended to. There. wero five or six occupiers of cottages in tho vicinity of St. Helens Hospital, who received these patients, and were paid for services so tendered. Sometimes patients were taken ‘.o a private nursing homo, and for these ho (jovernynent paid the fee of .£2 2s per week, collecting only tho St. Helens Hospital fee of 35s per week. The facts ascertained show conclusively that tho hospital is nnablo to receive within its walls all the patients who desire fo engage rooms there. A patient may not know until she actually arrives at, tho institution that she will have to be taken to a cottngn or a plicate nnr. sing home. Sometimes an inmate of tho hospital may be asked to leave‘a day earlier than usual to make room for another case. Tho demand for beds under the old regulation, which fixed tho wage limit nt A 3, was distinctly in. excess of the accommodation. and it appears that the staff had to be exceedingly resourceful in order to be able to receive all the patients who , applied there. The result of tho extension of the wage limit to X-t will undoubtedly be a still larger demand on tho hospital. Cases will either havo to be declined or arrangements made to accommodate them at private nursing homes. The danger of ‘‘squeezing out” of the institution the very class for whom it was intended is an obvious one.