CROWDED HOSPITALS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19373, 10 July 1937, Page 6

CROWDED HOSPITALS

IS SICKNESS INCREASING? A REASSURING SURVEY CHANGED SOCIAL OUTLOOK (.Special lo the Herald.) WELLINGTON, this day. The difficulties of the Auckland Hospital Board in providing for all its patients led the Herald correspondent to inquire into the general position of hospital accommodation in the Dominion. It was found that Auckland's position, though perhaps difficult, is not exceptional, for there is scarcely an important public hospital in the Dominion which is not crowded. To go to the extreme end of New Zealand from Auckland, there is the Southland Hospital Board forced to use both its old and new buildings because of the rush of patients, while large-scale extensions are being planned at Wellington, and there are building schemes for a number of other centres.

Acute though the position may be regarding hospital accommodation, there is absolutely no doubt that it is not due to exceptional prevalence of disease. A weekly survey of infectious diseases notified is made by the Health Department, and its Dominion figures for the week ended July 5 are not at all alarming. The total is 102 notifications, including 18 of scarlet fever, 22 diphtheria, two typhoid, and 14 of infantile paralysis. The increase compared with the corresponding week of last year is only 30. Hospitals More Popular The reason for overcrowding of our public hospitals being definitely not a higher ratio of sickness, the cause must be sought elsewhere. Several factors are combining to increase our hospital population, which is comparatively high in relation to the total population, the number of patients treated in general hospitals during 1936 reaching the total of 89,413, or about GO per 1000 of population. This excludes the sanatoria and purely maternity hospitals, which would, if added, bring the gross total to over 100,000 patients treated in the year. A generation ago, there was a different outlook on the public hospitals. Most people in those days regarded admission to the hospital with some trepidation, as an emergency measure and perhaps a last resort following failure of treatment at home. But to-day, the public hospital is a first resort, not the last, and this is the experience demonstrated by figures from all hospital districts. Effect of Housing Problem

The housing problem comes into the picture to some extent, for in the average modern home there is no room to set aside a bedroom solely for the use of a sick member of the family. The wide popularity of flats produces the same tendency, and there is the realisation on the part of the public that treatment can be more efficient and attention more continuous in hospital, compared with the home. Difficulty in securing domestic help adds to the problem. Medical services to-day are more specialised than in a past generation, and the equipment needed for constant use on a patient is more elaborate and expensive. It is only to be found at a well-equipped hospital, therefore medical men to-day are more ready to recommend admission to one of these institutions in preference to carrying on treatment in private homes.

One prominent medical man who discussed this modern tendency to prefer hospital treatment regarded it as a good sign of a sensible preference by patients, and in the long run, sound economy from the Dominion's point of view., Efficient treatment amid the best of surroundings, he considered, would reduce the average length of an illness, and therefore it had its economic advantage, however it was regarded by those who pay increasing hospital levies. Hospitals, he pointed out, are widening their scope, and increasing their specialised departments—all to the good of the patient.

Hospital Chairman's View A visit to Wellington by the chairman of the Auckland Hospital Board, the Rev. William C. Wood, gave an opportunity for discussing with this authority the increasing use of public hospitals, and the reasons. Mr. Wood had been concerned with arrangemeriTs for emergency accommodation to relieve the overcrowded Auckland Hospital. “Many factors are working in the direction of increasing the call on public hospitals,” said Mr. Wood in reply to questions. “There is the tendency to live in flats, there is the domestic labour problem, and Above all, the growing belief in the value of institutional treatment for the sick, in comparison with the former state of public opinion which was decidedly against hospital treatment. “Furthermore, owing to the specialisation of treatment, the medical fraternity show a strong preference for treating their patients where they have the proper facilities and equipment, and adequate staffing. Those are the main reasons for the growth in number of hospital patients, and I do not think the tendency will decline.”

“Is there a means test for those who need the facilities of our public hospitals?” Mr. Wood was asked. He was emphatic in the negative. “We regard the hospital as a public institution in the broadest sense of the word," he replied, "and any person is entitled to treatment. The only time there is any regard paid to the means of the patient is when there might be two patients, and only one bed left. Then we have to give the bed to the poorer patient.”