HOSPITAL CONGESTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21772, 11 October 1932, Page 11

HOSPITAL CONGESTION

POSITION IN SYDNEY So alarmingly overcrowded are Sydney's hospitals that had an accident occurred the other week there wonW have been no bed* for the victims, even' in casualty wards (says the Sydney , Daily Telegraph), . Hundreds form the largest waiting list for admission known for years, and : the number of discharged patients is so A small comparatively that each day aggravates. the position, which is f already ■ described as desperate. Even, cases of the greatest urgency have had to 4 wait hours for admission. ■ Hi some of the big hospitals, doctors have made a, round of wards, discharging patients whose lives would not !be endangered by removal to their' homes; but who, in ordinary: times, wodd he asked to remain in hospital much longer. Board of Health officers are making strenuous efforts to cope with the position hut, though they are receiving the best help possible form hospital superintendents, the waiting list is iacruasing every hour. ’ , ' , “ It is the mast alarming situation we have faced for years,” said one medical superintendent. “What would be the position if suddenly we should be faced with an epidemic outbreak?” Reviewing finances, the Marrickville Hospital report says:— . “ The total reduction of £B2l in the expenditure has been brought about, to a large extent, by cutting down leqiiirements and by doing without items which, in normal times, wmuld be looked upom as necessities, This policy cannot be continued for long without grave danger to the efficiency of the hospital.”