CONSIDERED BY THE HOSPITAL TRUSTEES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2745, 24 October 1906, Page 15

CONSIDERED BY THE HOSPITAL TRUSTEES.

I A SPECIAL INQUIRY TO BE HELD. At Wednesday's meeting of the Hospital Trustees the charges against the management of the Dunedin Hospital made by Mr J. Mosley, chairman of Bruce County Council, came up for consideration. A discussion arose on the matter by the reading of tho following correspondence : — Writing from Stirling on the 16th inst., Mr J. MosTey said: "Please find enclosed proof of the two cases mentioned by me in connection with treatment by Hospital to country people. As theee statements were under discussion at last meeting of your board, I now ask, in fairness to myself, that an inquiry into the matter be held." The cases referred to and forwarded by •Mr Mosley were those published in our issue of the 17th inst.— viz., (1) That of Kate Dunsmuir. an orphan girl, suffering from necrosis of the bones of the leg, who was treated in the Hospital, and accord-

r ' ing to the girl's statement discharged be- - cause her bed was wanted;. And had to be treated by Dr Fitzgerald, of Kaitangata, for 18 months afterwards.: -and (2) the caee 1 of William Paske'fl,' of? Adam's 'iPlat, who 5 alleges- that about three years .ago his brother, who jtasr sewc-usly fij,. was refused ! admission inh&s£je Hospital. - v- ■ , ■". "v Mr James AlleSi^iijtHiiß,.", also wrote on the same subject, attdT^Jq^estedi/tO'De fur- * nished with the. .'reply^ofr6e«« i t#H*ees to * the. charges after- tjiey v had beeiF^Sjmstired into. *■..__ ""-■■.■ * The Chairman the trustees .had no doubt seen the * particulars of' the cases » referred to in the* morning paper. He ~ had pointed out before- that it would be an extremely difficult matter to get iuforr mation regarding the man Paskell, as it was three years ago. » ' * j Mr Solomon : "V^e must hold an inquiry into the matter. The Chairman: I would suggest that we refer the matter to the House Committee 3 to report to next meeting. m , , „ 'r-- Mr SolotnoTn : This" nfan was requested to i make a direct allegation the Hosv \ pitaT management r he was^invitddJ to' make specific charges, and he 'has done so. The. . . matters are very old, as tfio- chairman says, and they will be .difficult to. inquire into,* i j but the inquiry " must be held.' "l do not' i j think- it i$ advisable to refer "the '■matter'' to the House Committee as the chairman s ' has suggested; the public at large, as well ' as the persons concerned, have a right to expect that the whole matter shall be inquired into by the trustees in public. The ' • trustees owe a duty to themselves as well ; as to the public to' have the whole matter . probed to the bottom^ j The Chairman : If, When the House Comj mittee 'reports, the trustees are not satisfied that all the information available has not been obtained, they can then go further into the matter. The object of ask- , ing the committee to investigate and report is that some information should be available for the trustees to deliberate upon. > Mr Solomon : The trustees can instruct the officers of the institution to make every possible inquiry, and furnish the whole information direct to the whole body of the trustees. The Chairman: The House Committee would do that. Mr Solomon: The trustees would ultimately have to decide the matter. Mr AT.en has put this matter before us in a temperate way, and he is entitled to know i that we have made a full inquiry. If j the matter is referred to the House Com- | mittee it might be suggested that the charges were dealt with in a hole-and-corner manner — that the inquiry was held in secret, and that the press was not admitted. Everything in connection with the inquiry r should be as public as possible. If there had been a fault in the institu- ; tion nothing could be better than that it should be known, and that it should be remedied in future. Mr Robin agreed that a public inquiry should be held, but thought as a preliminary step that the House Committee should gather up the information, but not to report. * The Chairman: I am sure that neither myself nor any member of the- trustees have any desire to place obstacles in the j way of a full inquiry. 1 Mr Wills: The charges should have been brought up at the time. They are only being used now to serve a certain purpose — , to dtaist the idea of the person who has j made them. i The Chairman : They have been made i for a purpose, there is no doubt of that. I Mr Solomon : The charges have been I made, and our duty is to investigate them jin the fullest possible manner. If the charges are true, it is a very serious ) matter ; if they are not true, they are very improper charges to have made. The Chairman suggested that it should bo referred to the House Committee to get all the information and to place it before the trustees, without a report, at a special meeting. Mr Solomon : I agree with that. I do not wish it thrown up at us that we held a hole-and-corner inquiry. I Mr Wills: Dr Fitzgerald should be called upon to give evidence. . Mr Tapper: So should Mr MosTey. ! The Chairman : Mr Mosley should certainly attend. A resolution was then adopted in the following form :— " That the charges made by Mr Mosley be referred to the House Committee to collect all information and all evidence, and prepare same to be placed before a special meeting of the trustees." An interesting gathering was held at Hastings last week, when the Rev. J. Hobbs (vicar of St. Matthew's pariah) entertained a number of the racing fraternity at a social gathering. There was a large attendance, amongst those present being Sir Wm. Russell (president of the Hawke's Bay Jockey Club).

| I HAKJTaBLK Ail) BOARD. ' At Thursday's meeting of the Charitable* Aid Board,* ' ' - , • -The Bruce County Council wrote with regard to V man resident in Milton.—The Chairman said with reference to this mstter that they had „ received the regulations under which thi? man could be admitted, and had forwarded ' them to the Count/ Council. The matter was one that wa* not in the hands of the Charitable Aid Department, but was in the hands of tJie Tourist Department—that was, the admission of patients to the Sanatorium at < Roforu*^—Noted. . ..*•-• ~" ■ - Th© ;said- fliers was a letter from Mr JSa&i Allen, 'M.H.R., asking for further paCTptdars^abotit vtb© charges I made by Mr jMosley, —The secretary Lad ; prepared a long letter of all the particulars, and had forwarded it to Mr Allen. Mr Allen wanted more particulars, for which he should apply to the Benevolent Trustees', as Mr Graham (the board's eecretarj^could ' only get.thena from the trustees aajdTfeencl tbem.tfh.—Dr -Batchelor suggested that the letter, might be luuidsd.to the' Benevolent Trusfees.T-Mr Arlcle saic} he had had- a long foaT«iai^V»i -with - 2»r. Alls" .in WeiHng^on, and .-be had seemed _ very much; afraid the Bruoe Oouii.ty. woijld get a separate invitation, .and' that' it would mean. a' heavier 'burden \pf rates on the city.^— The Chairman lea id he thought the House would see the wisdom —and the policy of the Government had always been in that* direction —of making larger districts instead of smaller ones. —Dr Batchelor thought they would put up a small cottage hospital, and that was required. People; however, preferred to come to town. They (Bruce) could never expect to run anything moro than a cottage hospital.—Mr Mill looked upon the whole thing as an attempt to reduce the status of the Dunedin Hospital. If Mr Mosley and those with him would put their hands in their pockets and bear the brunt of the expense he could see the force of it, but when the time came for them to put their hands in their pockets they would recede. —The Chairman: The best way would be to receive this letter, and send it to the Benevolent Trustees. — Mr Arkle said Mr Massey, M.H.R, had been of the opinion that where the cases were big they would be sent down to Dunedin. —lt was resolved to forward fcho letter on to the Benevolent Institution Trustees.

The most remarkable thing about the Exhibition, la the opinion of Mr G. S. Munro, is the fact that after the Government voted £120,000 for it, and for 12 months bore the sole pecuniary responsibility, concessionaries and exhibitors have shown their • confidence in the undertaking by putting no less than £300,000 into the project.