PLEASANT VALLEY SANATORIUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 3403, 4 June 1919, Page 25

PLEASANT VALLEY SANATORIUM.

SITE CONSIDERED UNSUITABLE. DEPARTMENT THE CHIEF WOBBLER. SHOULD THE INSTITUTION BE REBUILT? At the meeting of the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board, held last week, a letter was received from the organiser of the South Canterbury Development League, forwarding a report of the result of a deputation which waited on the Minister of Public Health regarding a consumptive sanatorium for South Canterbury. During the courso of hia reply, the Minister said that his department had already notified the Otago Board that he was entirely opposed to tho Palmerston institution, and that arrangements for Otago consumptive patients must be made elsewhere than there. The Chairman (Mr Knight) said that the Minister had never at any time said that he was opposed to the treatment of consumptives at the sanatorium at Palmerston, but he thought it would really be necessary for the board to meet the Inspector-general and discuss the whole question with him. Pie had always held that the treatment of consumptives should be made a national question and be entirely in the hands, of the Government.

Mr Tcmpleton said he did not quite understand the attitude the department had taken up over this matter. The site was approved by Dr Mason. Since then the department had told the board that it would not allow any further expenditure. When Dr VaUntine came back from his trip Home, however, he had told the board that it could make the sanatorium up to 100 beds, and had said the committee had done wonderfully well there. were now told that the institution was unsuitable. He did not know what the department meant by it. The letter was received. 'Later on, in the meeting, the following letter to the chairman, dated April 3, was read from the Hon. G. W. Russell (Minister of Public Health):— "In reference toothe conversation I had with you while in Dunedin in February last, I have discussed the future of this institution with the Inspector-general. The department recognises that neither the climate, soil, nor situation can be considered ideal for a consumptive sanatorium. The configuration of the ground, moreover, makes the extension of the institution very difficult. lam of the opinion, therefore, that it would be advisable for your board to be on the look out for a m<}re suitable site in some other part of the district, and in the meantime to spend only a minimum on the place. The Inspector-general concurs in this view."

The, .following letter from Dr Lyth (medical director at the sanatorium) was also read : '

" L have received yours of May 27, enclosing copy of the Minister's letter conctrning the future*of Pleasant Valley Sanatorium. The suitability, or otherwise, of the site has been the subject of publio controversy ever sinoo the erection of the sanatorium was approved by the Department of Public Health; and this dispute frequently unsettles the patients and hinders their progress. The Minister having brought the subject afresh before the public it is important,' in the interests of the patients themselves, that the board should seek finality in the matter. The department's policy is now diametrically opposed to that of seven years ago, when we were advised to plan for the enlargement of the institution to 100 beds, and - when it was considered that the advantages of the Pleasant Valley site made it probable that this would become the most important sanatorium in the South Island. The department has been the chief wobbler in this matter, but the board has been uncertain in its policy, and I myself, as the board's adviser, am wobbling at the present time, in this letter. I cannot take an extreme view on either side. If the board was starting a sanatorium do novo I should oertainly not advise it to choose the present property, but I should, with almost equal confidence, rejeot the sites of two or three other New Zealand sanatoria, under similar conditions. It must be recognised, however, thafr the Palmerston climate is good, that the site is improving- yearly as the shelter trees grow, and that, with the improved shelter, it will become possible to move the buildings to a higher, drier, and more sunny part of the grounds, where extensions can readily be carried out. The necessity for such a complete rearrangement of the buildings has long been recognised, and most of the recent alterations to the buildings have been temporary expedients in the erection of which this ultimate replanning ■ has been considered. The effect of such temporary measures has been to increase administrative difficulties, so that a considerable amount of rebuilding will soon be required even if no enlargement of the sanatorium is made. The boai'd is therefore faced with two alternatives: (1) To rebuild the main portions of the sanatorium, on a higher portion of the grounds and to move the_ portable shelters (if the department permits),, without any prospect of increasing the accommodation in the future, owing to the announced policy of the department, or (2) to rebuild at g'reater expense on an entirely new site, where the institution can b© expanded as occasion arises. It is possible that the second alternative, if judiciously carried out in the light of experience gained, may eventually prove the more economical of the two, particularly if the present site can be welt utilised for some other purpose. -It is of the utmost Importance, however, that the new site should bo a first class one, about the advantages of which there can be no doubt. In the meantime the patients anu ' would *be ' patients will no doubt regard the present place a 3 'condemned,' and such an attitude 13 bad for tho campaign' against tuberculosis. If the board delays, fresh expenditure will soon be required at Palmerston, and it will not be fair that the institution should be starved while slow

inquiries Mid a hesitant policy leavo tha fate of the present sanatorium unsettled. I advise the board to make inquiries on the lines suggested in the Minister's letter so that at the earliest possible moment it may bo ready to decide on a permanent policy." It was decided to forward a copy of Dr Lyth's letter to the Minister.