WRONG PLACE FOR T.B. SHELTERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 120, 11 August 1927, Page 10

WRONG PLACE FOR T.B. SHELTERS

IT is not surprising that the medical profession in Auckland is I opposed to the proposal to transfer the huts of T.B. returned soldier patients on the Domain to a site adjoining the northern boundary of the. general hospital grounds. There is nothing to support the proposal except the fact that the choice of site represents a compromise, which overcomes an embarrassing difficulty, pleases popular sentiment, and saves the faces of State and local government administrators. As an obvious retort, perhaps it will be argued that if the present site of the T.B. hutments was considered at one time to be a good one, the proposed site on a more open elevation near the hospital must be ever so much better and almost perfect for the treatment of tuberculosis. There is only one answer to that argument, and it is a conclusive one: No site in Auckland is suitable for the adequate treatment of T.B. Sentiment and not medical science was responsible for the selection of the Domain site and the erection of shelters for returned soldiers. To-day medical science seeks to guide sentiment to do the right thing in the right place for T.B. patients. In the unanimous opinion of the Auckland Division of the British Medical Association, neither the present site nor the proposed new one is a suitable locality for the treatment of tubercular eases. The Hospital Board and the Government should give serious heed to medical opposition to the proposal to erect T.B. shelters near the general hospital. It may be noted that the opinion of the B.M.A. is additional confirmation of our own, this being, as expressed time and again in this column, that the administrative authorities should make an end to the* scandal of a complete lack of adequate accommodation in this district for the efficient and curative treatment of T.B.