STANDARDS OF NUTRITION

Southland Times, Issue 25796, 6 October 1945, Page 8

STANDARDS OF NUTRITION

Decline In Ranks Of Children PARENTS BLAMED BY MINISTER

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, October 5. Speaking to the Health Department vote when the House of Representatives went into committee today on the Estimates, Mr H. J. D. Acland (Nat., Temuka) referred to the statement in the annual report of the Director-General that New Zealand already had more hospital beds for each 1000 of population than any other country in the world. In view of this, said Mr. Ac--land, why was it that there was still an acute shortage of beds and need for many hospital extensions? We were spending about £12,000,000 a year, or about £8 a person on sickness, and that was a tremendous amount for a country with such a favourable climate as New Zealand enjoyed. Mr Acland said the Director-General s report had also referred to the decline of nutritional standards among school children since 1940, but it had been stated in the House by the Minister of Finance and others that tire income of family men during the war years had been adequate. Mr Acland asked what was the reason for this nutritional decline, and what was being done to counteract the wide incidence of sickness among New Zealanders. PREVENTION REQUIRED Mr Nordmeyer said that only in recent years, since Social Security came into being, had the matter of sickness come prominently before the public, which could now see something of the actual cost of sickness. However, he agreed that more ought to be done on the preventive side. The recent discussion in the House on recreation and physical welfare, the Government’s housing programme, and the recent report from an overseas authority on factory hygiene—some of his recommendations would be incorporated in the Factory Bill to come before the House shortly—all indicated the Government’s interest in a positive approach to the good health of the nation. Special attention was being paid to children, although it had been impossible during the war to recruit sufficient doctors for the Division of School Hygiene. Mi’ Nordmeyer said that some malnutrition might have resulted from rationing during the war years. If wise feeding had been carried out by parents with alternative foodstuffs, the New Zealand diet was adequate, but only advice and not compulsion could be used in persuading parents to follow a good dietary programme for children. However, it was likely that much of the decline of children’s health standards referred to in the report of the Dir-ector-General was due to lack of adequate rest and sleep. Many parents did not realize the importance of these factors in the health of children, and the department had been carrying out an advisory campaign to convince parents of the need for adequate attention to these matters. CRACKED CUPS

Mr C. M. Bowden (Nat., Wellington West) drew attention to the need for better standards of hygiene in eating houses. A thing that disgusted the public was the lack of suitable and adequate crockery. Cracked cups were detrimental to general cleanliness. Sufficient import licences should be granted to enable eating-house proprietors to replace their stocks, and the regulations should also be tightened up to see that the public was no longer subjected to the risks of contamination and infection, which possibly had been unavoidable during the war.

Mr Nordmeyer said it was quite correct that New Zealand now. led the world in the provision of hospital beds, but it had to be borne in mind that a very high proportion of maternity cases were dealt with in both public and private hospitals; also that relatively high provision was made for tuberculosis cases. It was the department’s policy to have 10 beds for each 1000 of population in every hospital district. Mr Bowden said the number of private maternity hospitals in the Dominion was decreasing. One factor contributing to this was that they had not been afforded facilities for obtaining general staff. Another difficulty was that private maternity hospitals were not recognized as training institutions. He considered there was a deliberate policy on the part of the Government to force private maternity hospitals out of business.

Mr Nordmeyer said there was no foundation for Mr Bowden’s statement. From time to time the Government was issuing licences for the erection of new private maternity hospitals in different parts of the country. The Government’s policy was to foster private maternity hospitals. He agreed that some of them had suffered from staff shortages, but so had public hospitals. The National Service Department’s aim was to help maternity hospitals to obtain domestic staff.