MORE CASES IN HOSPITAL

Taranaki Daily News, 19 July 1933, Page 6

MORE CASES IN HOSPITAL

INCREASE DURING WINTER MAL-NUTRITION AND STRAIN. FEWER JULY ADMISSIONS. OPINIONS AT NEW PLYMOUTH. c That the decided increase in the average number of patients at the New Plymouth hospital since the beginning of the winter might be due in part to the effects of mal-nutrition occasioned by the straitened circumstances of many people was an opinion expressed by Dr. G. F. Rich, medical superintendent, to a Daily News reporter yesterday. The June figures. presented to the Taranaki Hospital Board by Dr. Rich yesterday placed the daily average number of patients at 179.75, while in June, 1932, the average was 165.86/Similar increases have obtained throughout the winter, although Dr. Rich said that the patients for the present month were so far much fewer than for June. The admissions last month were 197, while those for the same month of 1932 were 205. The greater daily average for the rJ-w month would seem to indicate a longer period at the institution by most patients, and the fact that the number of operations for June, 1933, was only 133 compared wih 134 for June, 1932, bears out the statement that the increase is on the medical side and not on the surgical side. Road accident admissions have been fewer this winter, although football cases have been fairly numerous. Isolation and chronic cases are much more numerous than last year. LOWERED VITALITY. In answer to a question Dr. Rich said it was quite possible that mal-nutrition brought about by the depression had lowered the resistance of some people as far as warding off illness was concerned, and he- thought' it might, also have affected adversely, their power of quick recovery. Some patients, especially those suffering from chronic diseases, had been kept in hospital longer than they would have been had it been known that they would be returning to good homes when discharged. The (July admissions up to the present time were fewer than anticipatecl, very few of the usual July and August pneumonia cases having come to the hospital. ~ Mal-nutrition, it is interesting to note, does not mean starvation as is fairly commonly believed. Imperfect or faulty nourishment is the meaning of the word, and its action naturally lowers the vitality of the people and renders them more open to disease and illness. Dr. Rich said that while a fairly large number of children had been admitted to the Tabor Ward, the increases of past months were spread over the whole institution. ASPECT OF MENTAL STRAIN. ' Another aspect of the depression as influencing illness was mentioned to the Daily News by a citizen conversant with the relief of distress at New Plymouth. He said the nervous strain caused by worry had resulted in lowered resistance to disease in some instances. He had no doubt that such a strain tended to lower the vitality of those concerned and render them liable to illness. It is understood that some city hospitals: have been affected in a different manner, the average daily number of their patients having decreased. The opinion has been expressed that the same people were too poor to be able to “afford” an illness, but it would seem that eventually such hospitals will receive a rush of patients unable to delay seeking attention that they might require. Some authorities " have been known to praise times of depression from a health point of view. They have said that through lack of cash people are forced to abandon luxuries the continuance of which was likely to damage their health. •