HOSPITAL METHODS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16416, 3 May 1921, Page 2

HOSPITAL METHODS.

A OQCTOR’S SUGGESTION. [Pbr Press Association.! WELLINGTON, May 2. Before the Hospital Commission, Dr William Collins submitted a plan for four base hospitals in the Dominion. Superintendents, he said, should meet and submit recommendations to the Director of Hospitals. Superintendents should not have control of t.be treatment of patients, but should see that every patient is - properly cared for. Each base hospital should he fully equipped with whole time surgeons, physicians, bacteriologists and radiologists, all. living on the premises. Under this scheme patients would receive the whole attention of whole time men. Subsidiary hospitals, public and private, should hare whole time men Attached to each public hospital should ho private wards, open to all practitioners in the district. Where there was an honorary staff private wards were not usually a success. Patients should pay two or three guineas a week. The Government should pay a subsidy of pound for pound on levies from local authorities, voluntary contributions, fees collected, donations and bequests. He strongly urged that the Otago Medical School should be given every assistance necessary to equip students during their six-year course to enable them to pass from the school to the position of resident house surgeon or house physician at a hospital. Unless some provision was made for medical students to gradually pass from the school through hospitals to private practice a great deal of difficulty would arise, as many would not be able to make a living. Under such a system every man who entered the School of Medicine would feci that his future success was assured. Private hospitals,, he considered, should not at present be interfered with, except in so far as that they should be open to the superintendent. who would examine into methods of treatment and proper record of coses. Hospital boards should remain as at present constituted and carry out th©ir functions as before, hut he suggested that the medical superintendent should h© a member of the board. He urged also tho need of accommodation for such mental cases as really required care and treatment, but were not. so far advanced in disease as to justify their being committed to a. mental hospital. He suggested that information gained by the Commission and its findings should be submitted to a committee of three best business brains in the community. Financing was a business proposition and th© care of the patient and prevention of disen£© a medical one. The Commission held over the examination of Dr Collins in order to giv© members time to study his proposals carefully.