MENTAL HOSPITAL

Southland Times, Issue 19396, 10 November 1924, Page 6

MENTAL HOSPITAL

COMMISSION OF INQUIRY. CHARGES AGAINST A MEDICAL OFFICER. (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z. Cable Aasociation). MELBOURNE, November 8. Remarkable evidence was given before a Royal Commission which is inquiring into allegations by members of the staff of the Kew Asylum against a junior medical officer of maladministration and cruelty to patients. One nurse gave evidence that this doctor extracted patients’ teeth in the open air without anaesthetics or other necessary precautions for the sake of obtaining dental experience, and that he also experimented on unwilling patients in order to demonstrate to the nurses the use of surgical instruments. In order to show the witness how to do it, he got her to draw a tooth. Another nurse gave a similar testimony. She added that hypodermic injections were given to patients as a punishment and not as a sedative, because they were naughty patients. Afterwards they complained of sickness and soreness. This witness declared that both the nurses and patients were afraid of the doctor. Other allegations involved are of bringing liquor into the asylum, removing a fence dividing the male and female patients, want of proper cleanliness regarding clothing, insufficient clothing when forcing patients to bathe in the open in wintry weather, and telling indecent stories to the nurses.