HOSPITAL BOARD.

Timaru Herald, Volume XC, Issue 13316, 19 June 1907, Page 7

HOSPITAL BOARD.

Tlie monthly meeting of the 'j'uuth Canterbury it.oopicai unci L uariuiine Aid Boaid »vas iielcl yesterday. Present—Mesa's J. lalbot (chairman), W. 8. Maslin, J. Craijj.e, G. Lyall and W. Coltmaii. Mr Stud..uiine sent an apoiogy. C'HAIRMAX'fc STATEMEX i". 'lll, chairman said the Board had a balance of £735 2s Id, and the accounts to pay were £620, leaving £lls for next month, Since la_t meeting not much had come in from the local bodies, but by next meeting more -would no doubt- have come in. li was decided at last meeting that this meeting should be held at the hospital to allow members 'to see the new buildings, but as they were not qu/nj completed it was thought better to defer the hospital meeting till next -month. It had bc-en decided that two 'members of this Board should be associated with the Cliristchureh { Committee in charge of the Consumptive Sanatorium. The Christchurch Committee had held two meetings during the past month, and notice had been :,ent to this Board, but in each case t-:o late to be acted upon. He himself got no notice at all for one meeting. They might have been consulted too, in regard to hour of meeting, as an afternoon meeting mcunt a loss of three days. The secretary said the notice cams by telegram the evtiling before the day of meeting, and he at once wrote to Christchurch that it was ridiculous to invite South Canterbury people to attend on tuch short notice. BALANCE SHEET. The Auditor-General returned the Board's balance sheet for 1906-7, certified correct. Members remarked that this time the balance sheet had been returned without any tags; the Auditor-General must have turned over a- new leaf. Mr Craigie asked that a copy of the statement be sent to the contributing local bodies, .aid this was agreed to. TALBOT HOSPITAL. The' caretaker and nurse of the Talbot Hospital, reported that the hospital' had been gone through and everything was in order. There were no patients in at present. The ground was being prepared for vegetables. - j. he secretary said a case had come in that morning. The chairman reported that ail offer at £l6 had been. accepted for a crop of potatoes off the land (between six and seven acres), at Talbot Hospital. Mr-Lyall said that a considerable patch of the land was made into a bog by the drainage from the septic tank. He suggested that it should be piped to the road side.' The chairman thought that would. be objected to. The mischief was duejto the water being turned on to a small piece of ground. Dr Mason had suggested a zigzag drain, to irrigate a good deal of ground; and that would avoid swamping any of it. TIMARU HOSPITAL. The secretary reported that, there were 57 patients in hospital at the beginning of the month, and 38 were admitted, making 95 treated. Of these 49 were discharged (five by death) leaving 46 in hospital. An application for employment as engineer for th? new laundry was referred to the chairman and Mr Craigie. Dr Bete informed the Board that the dynamo used for charging X-ray battev. did not- belong to tlis- hospital, and he suggested that one be purcliaied. Mr Craigie suggested that the electric installation of the Borough would make that unnecessary, and it was agreed that 'the cbairmau and Mr Craigie should inquire into this. CHARITABLE AID. Several cases of Charitable Aid were inquired into and ordered upon. One new ,ca.si- at Waimate was granted an allowance towards cost of keeping fatherless children. A recipient at Fairlie begged that liis monthly allowance be not reduced as ordered, "and he enclosed a petition signed by a number of people asking that liis allowance be continued. Tlie jietition, it was pointed out, prayed for an allowance of the reduced amount now given. THE INSPECTOR-GEXERAL. Dr Vaiintine, Inspector-General of Hospitals and Charitable Aid, had an interview with the Board, and was welcomed by the chairman. . , Dr Valintine said he was glad to have the opportunity of meeting the Board, as ha I/ked to see tlie men. he had to do business with, and in a personal interview thev could get over the ground better than by a mass of correspondence. He had been through their institutions, and their hospitals were well found and well kept. Tlie new operating room was not elaborate, but a sensible and clean room, without any lavish expenditure. He was told that there was some idea, of using the old operating room as a children's ward. He thought it unsuitable for that purpose. It would not hold more than three, and it was on the cold south side. A children's ward was in a certain sense a luxury. It would no doubt be an advantage to the older patients to be freed from the annoyance of the crying children, but that was not absolutely essential. The Government should provide necessaries, and leave it to -tlia generosity of the public to provide luxuries. He commended the provision of a new laundry, and recommended the shifting back of some old wooden buildings and of the fowl ran. The ventilation of some of the old wards was inefficient, the windows not opening sufficiently to give a through flush of fresh air. He visited the Old Men's Home.. The buildings appeared lo be answering their purpose in the meantime, and the inmates seemed to be contented and well cared for. • He understood that the Board proposed to build a- new home on the site of the infectious diseases hospital. He would prefer a larger site, so as to provide work for the inmates. It was difficult to get them to work, but seme custodians managed to do it, and to get a.lot of work done. It was important to get them away from the temptations of the town. The infectious diseases hospital was well de-signed, well built, and well kept; it was quite a- model infectious diseases hospital. Having had .'ome correspondence with th-' Board regarding the establishment of a cottage hospital at Gtraldine, he went there on Monday accompanied by Mr Craigie. They made some inquiries and saw two residents—(Mr Masli'.i was unfortunately from home) —Mr Stubbs, who had been connected with the County Council for many years, and Dr Hislop, who had the principal practice in the town. They both expressed tho opinion that there was no necessity for a cottage hospital there, and that all that was wanted was temporary accommodation, where a patient could receive first aid before being removed to the hospital. They did not seem to be impressed with the necessity for even that. He understood that there was some probability of a private hospital being established at Geraldine, and the most this Board should do would be to give a small amount as a subsidy for a bed there. The several central hospitals should be kept in as high a state of efficiency as possible, and that would be- impossible if they frittered away fh-nr fimds on subsidiary institutions. He did not think the Geraldine people were iu earnest in asking for a cottage hospital, and was glad of that, for if they gave one there, they could not logically refuse them to places much less favourably situated with regard to central hospitals. If they could get a couple of beds in a private hospital for urgent cases, that should meet th o requirements of Geraldine. Turning to otlur questions, of more than local interest. Dr Valintine spoke oi the desirability of providing a home for incurables. and recommended that Canterbury, Otago and Southland should combine to establish and maintain one. There ought

to be two for each island, to teceive chronic cases that were not proper subjects for the geueral hospitals, and required too much attention for the old men's homes. In Christchurch these c;;r-es were turned out of the hospital for their fri-'nds to do the best thev cottld for them. There were homes at Wellington and Auckland only, and the consequence was that there were cas&s of hardship. Regarding charitable aid, in spite of the pru-jptriiy of the colony, he thought they were spending too much on outdoor relief. This Board had a enthusiastic itndi energetic secretary, who evidently kept a good look out in the interests of the Board, but they had to rely a good deal on pohCw- reports, and th? police might be misled. The proper principle was to help the people to ihenuelves. and it would be a greater charity to lend a widow a sewing machine or a mangle, by which she could earn a living, than to make her a-monthly allowance for food. The secretary could do a good deal by making himself conversant- with all parts of the district And. fhidmg out where women could get- employment, as charwomen, cleaning schools, and so foitli. It was a. mistake to make grants for rents, as one woman avlio wa? courageously paying her own way might be induced to apply for a, grant on learning that n. neighbour had her rent paid for her. Payment of rent could not be avoided altogether, but he a.«ked the Board to keep in view the objections to the* system. With regard to boarding out of children, there might be less objection hi a country district, but in the large towns some of the children were nen-lected. People who took children for the sake of the* payment for them could not- be expected to be so careful of their welfare as the parents would be, and young infants! suffered from improper feeding. He hoped that before long there would be children's homes established, where they would be wall fed, well taught, and given a j?tart in life. There was one such home in Southland, five miles from Invercargill, with over fiftv children in it; and they looked well and seemed quite happy, showing no fear of their guardians.. Another important question of general interest was the abuse of the public hospitals by people who could -afford to pay for treatment. The 'Jimaru rate, for instance, was 5s a day. That would not- cover the expense of the institution if it were run as a business concern. . People who could afford it should pay more than that rate. He admitted that it was very hard to draw a line. A man with £SOO a. year; a large family and much sickness, might be less able to pay more than a single man with £2OO a year. The cases must be dealt with according to circumstances. In concluding his general' remarks Dr Valintine said he was pleased to have the opportunity of conferring with the Board. He had. not been long in office, and was desirous of obtaining the point of view of the Boards. Mr Maslin stated 'that a committee of the Board had inquired. into the proposal to establ*h a cottage hospital at vJeraidmc, anct came to the very same conclusion now recommended by the Inspector—that the ■belt thing to do was to subsidise a nurse, to deal with urgent cases. If a private hospital was started the subsidy could be given to it for one or two beds. Dr Valintine thought one bed would be sufficient. , ,-i • , The chairman expressed his pleasure that, the inspector had -recognised the dif-. iciilties of the Boards:-In applications for charitable aid, the Board considered each upon its merits taking a liberal rather than an illiberal view of each. Regarding payment of rents, the Board had, been compelled in some capes to pay rents to save people from being turned into the street, .when Boaid would have had to make provision for them at greater cost.' With regard to the police reports, tlie Board looked upon, these as most valuable.: The police officers stationed in a district, knew more about the people than the senrctary could possibly find out for himself. ; Regarding the size of site for the Old Men's Home, ho did not agree that a large area was needed. There was eight acres in the present, site, and uuless they went in for cow keeping, they could not utilise so much land, A small sice well looked after would be better than a large one neglected. He suggested the question whether the; infectious diseases hospital could not be put to some other use—-say as: an old men's,home —as it was so little, needed for its ostensible purpose. It was. satisfactory that that was the case, but it seemed a pity to spend £l7O or £IBO a year upon it, uselessly. An unfortunate thing about it was the limitations on its usefulness. If a case of smallpox or plague occurred, •Ju-y were told thai it must not lis treated there ;—it was practically limited to scarlet fever and measles. , Dr Valintine t-.aid they would have epidemics of these from tune to tune, arid Dr ..Mason would not welcome a suggestion lo convert a model infectious hospital into an pld men's home. Jtie couia not help thinking that the Board's woutu find it more economical to combine in die. erection ox one large pld men's home, instead of having so many of them. A discussion took piacli on the cost of thaie homes. That of Tirnaru was stated to be Ss lid gross per head per week. Dr Valintiue said one of the homes was being run at 8h Gd a week. Two sample cases of charitable aid, one a new one Before the Board, and another an Oxd one were laid before Dr Valinune, and he agreed entirely in regard to the former ; tlie latter was thorougliiy threshed out. Mr Craigie thanked the inspector for attending 'die meeting, and approved of his suggestions that homes for incurables and for children should b,i provided. The infectious diseases hospital had not been much used yet (and • so * mu,ch the better) but he was glad it- was there, a:, 1 he had had great dilficulty in finding accommodation for two or three casts of scarlet fever. Regarding the size of the site for the new home, he pointed out that- a, large area could not be worked without, hordes and implt-nieiv.::. He beli-.ved that- a good organiiii* would bz able -to get the old men to do a good deal o! work with spade- raid ho*. He was glad Dr Valintine had met them. The chairman said such interviews would do good on both sides. The Board would learn tho views of the inspector, and ha would learn some of the difficulties that, beset the Boards. Dr Valintine hoped they would be ab'e to work together, and 'then tliey would be able to effect, some very necessary reforms. He hoped to meet 'tlie Board again next year. In reply to the chairman, he said the question of a home for incurables would probably be dealt with by legislation this session. The' chairman said lii-3 Board had found' a difficult class to deal with in imbeciles, especially females, who were not fit for an asylum or for the old men's home. Perhaps- these could be accommodated in a wing of the. home for incurables. There were far more of them than people were aware, of. Dr Valintine said lie; believed his assistant had a scheme, for such cases. Some further discussion took place on the question of a home for children, and the interview- terminated. The Board completed its ordinary business and passed accounts, and then rose.