TREATMENT OF CANCER
X-RAY INSTALLATIONS CRITICISM IN REPORT Criticism of some of the equipment provided for cancer treatment was included in the report presented at the annual meeting of the New Zealand branch cf the British Empire Cancer Campaign Society in Wellington last week. It was decided to make representations on the subject to the Hospital Boards’ Association and the Department of Health. “It is generally agreed that a number of the X-ray installations in use for the treatment of cancer in New Zealand are, judged by modern standards, defective in one respect or another,” the report said. “Some are frankly out of date and in others such improvements as have been made in recent times in regard to shock-proof-ing, protection against stray radiation and stability of potential are lacking. “It would appear that the proper equipment for a metropolitan centre of the size that exist... in New Zealand must include a deep therapy plant incorporating these improvements. The recently-introduced low-voltage apparatus associated with the name of Professor Chaoul promises to be an instrument of such wide applicability in the treatment of certain types of growth that it may well form part of the equipment of a modern cancer treatment centre. “As far as radium is concerned, we believe we have sufficient for our immediate needs,” stated the repoi t. In addition to that contained in the plant at Wellington, there is a. quantity, nearly all of which is in suitable containers and suitably screened, distributed among the treatment centres. The meeting decided to recommend to the Hospital Boards’ Association and the Department of Health that the four main hospitals should be equipped with modern deep X-rav therapy plants of a capacity suggested by the society, and also that in the four mam hospitals the departments devoted to diagnosis and treatment should be separately housed and staffed. A recommendation from the central committee to the society was that the physicist should visit each main hospital for three weeks to standardize and test apparatus, and should then visit each centre for at least one week in each quarter to ensure its efficient operation. It was explained that it was not intended that the therapy apparatus should necessaril- be of one design or make, as long as a modern type capable of delivering the required voltage was installed.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST19360615.2.47
Bibliographic details
Southland Times, Issue 22916, 15 June 1936, Page 6
Word Count
386TREATMENT OF CANCER Southland Times, Issue 22916, 15 June 1936, Page 6
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Southland Times. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.