NO SANATORIUM

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 25, 21 April 1927, Page 8

NO SANATORIUM

AUCKLAND’S LACK PLIGHT OF CONSUMPTIVES DRASTIC STEPS DEMANDED Auckland lacks a sanatorium for the treatment of tuberculosis, and scores of sufferers hereabouts are unable to procure treatment because the Pukeora and Otaki institutions are too far away. Dr. C. J. Blaekmore’s prediction that the disease can be defeated in New Zealand if the proper measures are taken throws into high relief the complete absence of sanatoria in the Auckland province. Here there is a third of the I)ominioir’s population, in which, logically, a large percentage of the tuberculosis developing in the country is likely to occur. But the Cambridge sanatorium, the only tuberculosis sanatorium Auckland has had, was closed long since. Remaining is the hospital at Epsom, for chronic cases only, but. the accommodation there is inadequate to meet the demand, and no facilities at all are provided for the treatment of those in the early stages of the disease. TASK FOR HOSPITAL BOARDS In consequence many of Auckland's tuberculosis victims do not get proper treatment. They are either unwilling or unable to go as far away as Waipukurau. and therefore are denied a chance to overthrow the malady. The plight of chronic cases unable to get a bed at Epsom is still more pitiable. Dr. H. Chesson. medical officer of health, at Auckland, said this morning that he had been unable to place chronic sufferers for w hom there was no room at Epsom. He thought the establishment of a sanatorium in the Auckland district was a matter for the hospital boards. North Canterbury, where Dr. Blackmore was doing such excellent work, given all other boards a lead.

Mr. W. P. Wallace, chairman of the Auckland Hospital Board, intends to make an official statement on the subject shortly. He believes that the Government erred when it closed the Cambride sanatorium, and that the hospital boards of the Auckland province should now co-operate with the object of establishing and maintaining an up-to-date sanatorium in thi* district. ULTIMATE VICTORY UNITED EFFORT URGED (Special to THE SUXA ] CHRISTCHURCH, Wednesday. ’ That the ultimate defeat of tuberculosis .seems certain is the opinion of Dr. Blackmore, Medical Director of Tuberculosis Institutions. In his annual report to the North Canterbury Hospital Board he urges that a determined effort be made in New Zealand to bring about that defeat at the earliest possible moment. The total number of attendances at the tuberculosis dispensary during the year was 2,439, being 1,647 civilians, and 792 ex-soldiers. This represents 1,108 individuals, 816 civilians, and 292 soldiers. Of 479 new cases presenting themselves, 255 were found to be suffering from tuberculosis, as compared with 166 last year. Notification figures were not reliable, continued Dr. Blackmore, as an indication of the amount of tuberculosis in the Dominion. Pulmonary tuberculosis was the only formr compulsorily notifiable, and not all cases of that were notified. The figures showed, however, that while the death rate was declining notifications were mounting, which was a hopeful feature. The figures for the last 25 years showed that if the death rate from tuberculosis in 1926 had been the same as in 1902 there would have been in 1926 about 1,330 deaths from tuberculosis, where there were only 684, a saving of 646 lives. “In every part of the world where active measures are being taken against tuberculosis, similar results are being recorded. The ultimate defeat of tuberculosis seems so certain that it appears to be worth while making a determined and united effort now.”