A COSTLY BOOZER.

NZ Truth, Issue 250, 9 April 1910, Page 7

A COSTLY BOOZER.

Were the Hospital Authorities -■* Awake ? ;

Some time ago a man had an accident m the North Island,'whereby his head; was. badly damaged, and he went for treatment to the Wellington Hospital. From this institution he was discharged as cured, arid seems to have taken to drinking, for a short time afterwards he ■ turned up at the Dunedin hospital for treatment as a delirium tremens patient. He entered tue institution on March 2, and, after a short spell m the padded cell, was accommodated with a bed m one of the wards, the bed being shifted into the open air on fine days. Owing to j his condition it was found' necessary to Ixave an attendant to watch-him day and night, and for 24s a day • for twd^ attendants it cost the hospital £27, -m addition* to ordinary maintenance, before the man was removed to • the. Seacliffe Mental Hospital, on March 24^ ' '■-' ] At the meeting of the Hospital Trustees, at which the .account was passed for payment, Dr: Falconer, the hospital doctor, said the cost could have been reduced by two-thirds if the institution had had a proper observation ward. Trie doctor may be right about the observation ward; hut still it cannot be denied that the man was far too long a burden en the ratepayers. Without being an authority, any man can say that it doesn't ta'te twenty-two days for an at^ lack of the D.T.s to work itself outj or, if it should I'e'a rather* long afc tack, it doesnt take twenty-two days i before a medical man can tell how it's going to turn-out. In the present case; the man was apparently suffering from the 1 old injury to his head, and it does not say much for the hospital authorities that they allowed him to stay so long at the hospital before finding out, that he wasn't' a fit patient for a general hospital, and should have' been sent to a mentalvliospitalweekg before*