HOSPITALS IN TARANAKI

Taranaki Daily News, 20 February 1932, Page 8

HOSPITALS IN TARANAKI

Dft BEGG DEFENDS SCHEME CO-ORDINATION OF THE CONTROL. USE OF STRATFORD AND HAWERA. “QUICKER SERVICE”. CLAIMED. The application of hie scheme for hospital reconstruction as it affected country districts was explained by Dr. R. Campbell Begg, Wellington, in a reply to criticism made by the Hawera Hospital Board and Eltham County Council. Dr. Begg’s reply had particular reference to New Plymouth, Hawera and ■Stratford hospitals., Criticism was also levelled at the scheme by the Taranaki and Stratford Hospital Boards.

“Mr. A. L. Campbell, of the Hawera Hospital Board, has vigorously criticised some scheme which has no relation to any suggested from here,” Dr. Begg said. “I can assure Mr. Campbell. on most of ' the points he raised. The proposals of • the Wellington board do not involve: ' ■ ’

“(1) Taking hospitals out of the hands of the taxpayers. “(2) Closing the Hawera hospital or reducing, its function to the care of urgent cases only. “(3) Subjecting influenza cases to travelling from Hawera to New Plymouth. .

“(4) The closing of the out-patient department at the Hawera hospital. “(5) Closing the Stratford hospital. “The , Wellington board’s proposal does involve:

“(1) The control and co-ordination of the Stratford, Hawera, and Taranaki Hospital Board districts by one board with representatives from the contributing bodies of all three districts. “(2) The establishment of a strong base hospital at New Plymouth with an efficient investigating clinic for outdoor patients at New Plymouth, with the use and development of all the medical resources available in that town. 1

"(3) The right of any patient in the three districts to be sent for out-patient diagnosis to the base hospital clinic by the medical officer at either of the two other hospitals. “(4)The right of any patient ,to be sent to New Plymouth for any investigation or treatment which it is considered he could obtain at the hands of a team of medical men with special experience at New Plymouth, and which is not available under the conditions necessarily available at Hawera or Stratford. “(5) The right to be-referred back to Hawera after diagnosis at New Plymouth for treatment at the Hawera hospital. . 1 “(6) The right to have the services of specially qualified men from the New Plymouth hospital at Hawera in urgent cases where desirable.

“The'central board at New Plymouth, with the help of its medical committee, which; might well have representatives of 'the district hospitals, would have the power so to arrange the .medical services that all patients who could receive adequate treatment at the district hospital would be treated there. It would decide from time to time what standard of work could rightly be performed at Hawera and what ought to be sent to New Plymouth, taking into account the beat means to secure the rapid treatment and quick . recovery of the patient. It would co-ordinate the treatment of chronic and infectious disease in the whole of its district to the best advantage. “The New Plymouth hospital would have free facilities for sending cases to Wellington for such diagnostic and treatment methods as were not available. All this would be done without the tedious, unsatisfactory and dilatory methods involved in one board using the services of another, which exists at present.

“Such a system woqld. prevent overlapping, prolonged stay, and give rapid handling and quick: return to work. It is all in the interests of the patients. It would mean the loss of seats on the hospital boards by some members in all the three districts. But, as has rightly been remarked, the patient comes first.’ ”