DOCTORS IMPRESSED

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20930, 8 January 1938, Page 11

DOCTORS IMPRESSED

TEST OF SISTER KENNY’S TREATMENT (Received January 8, 12.10 a.m.) LONDON, January 7. It is understood on unimpeachable authority that the doctors at Carshaton Clinic, in Surrey, where tests have been made, are deeply impressed with Sister Kenny’s methods of the treatment of infantile paralysis. The clinic accommodates forty patients, and nearly 100 have already been treated, several of which were acute cases. Sister Kenny’s treatment Is reported to have yielded excellent results. The fact that there have been no deaths since the clinic opened is accepted as one of the strongest proofs of its efficiency. The early treatment of new cases at Carshaton is considered to have placed a new complexion on Sister Kenny’s methods.

It was announced yesterday that the Victorian Minister of’Health (Sir John Harris) had received a letter from Dr. F. H. Mills, of London, supporting Sister Kenny’s treatment. He declared that it was a vast improvement on the orthodox system. Her work, he said, was under the observation of celebrated physicians and surgeons, who agreed that the method was entirely new and their report would be available in six weeks’ time. The Sister Kenny method of treating infantile paralysis was rejected by ;he Queensland Royal Commission, comprising five doctors, which was appointed two years ago by the State Government. A summary of the findings declared that except in one important principle there is little difference between the Sister Kenny method and the orthodox treatment, and where the difference occurs the orthodox method is the better one. The report states that out of forty-seven patients examined the majority showed no effective improvement. Sister Kenny subsequently issued a statement that the report of the Queensland Royal Commission contained mis-statements and misrepresentations, and she claimed that opportunities for testing her work in the best circumstances had been ignored. The New South Wales Minister of Health stated that the Queensland report seemed at variance with the report of the Medical Committee which had investigated the cases of infantile paralysis in Sydney.