HOSPITAL DIETARIES.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCIV, Issue 14394, 9 January 1911, Page 3

HOSPITAL DIETARIES.

REMARKS BY DR VALENTINE. Dr Valintine, Inspector-General of Hospitals, speaKiug before thoi SL'ati'ora Hosp.tui Board last Monday, sa.d that ior time ho iiad been irviflg to get a uniform dietary in the different Hospitals. In the Dunediu lius?.tal patients wero given six ouncea »if iii-.-a*, 111 Auckland they got eight ounces, and in some hospitals' tho allowance ran up to twelve ounces. Ho had now p'fcparod a diet scale for use in <4l tho I nospitals. Tliero was nothing to maj-e any board adopt the scale. Tho Do- ! partment did not intend to interne with the hoards, and tho scale wi'i'.id be given merely as a guidanco to boards. Tho matter of diet ,vas one which deserved much attention. In Ins mind it was wrong that patents got as much meat as they did at present. It was well-known that everybody at the- present day—even .'.hose who were thorougldy well—ate far 100 much meat. The diets at present in use were those framed forty years ago, when meat was regarded as an ii dspensablo part of tho diet. Thero were always patients—of whom too much notice should not he taken —who complained tluxt they did not get enough to eat, as they thought they ought to he fed up. Again, the outside public were always liable to get hysterical about the diet of patients. If i«M meat were given it would bo bs-tter both for the patients and the Bushmen and such people were in the habit of having a big meal of < hops for breakfast, f*nd they expected the same in the hospital; but even lor such people a Kg meal was not n3crssary or advisable.