“REGRETTABLE.”

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17572, 24 June 1925, Page 1

“REGRETTABLE.”

| DOCTOR AND PATIENT. 1 COMMENT ON DUNEDIN CASE. (Special to the ‘“Star ") | WELLINGTON. June 2L Referring to the Dunedin Hospital inquiry, the Wellington “Post" says: j “A report is published of an inquiry held by the Dunedin Hospital Board into alleged delay in the treatment of great importance to the general public to be dismissed as of purely local interest, when the high responsibilities undertaken by the members of the medical profession and the implicit trust of the public in its members arc considered. In this particular case a patient with a dental plate lodged in his throat died in the Dunedin Hospital when about to undergo an operation for its removal. On medical and expert

evidence the board reported that, although ‘there was unnecessary delay,’ it. ‘noted’ medical opinion that ‘the delay which did occur was not responsible lor the death of the patient, nor did it accelerate the fatal ending of the case.’. But there seems to have been something more than misunderstandings among members of the hospital. resident staff in this case. “Its circumstances were such as to demand a special inquiry into them, and, it must be admitted, a decidedly candid report from the board. For its - candour the Dunedin Board has earned the thanks of the whole of the public 1 of the. Dominion. The ‘atmosphere,’ as it describes it, at the hospital was certainly unsatisfactory, and no-,doubt, as a result of the inquiry and the finding it will be purified. At any rate, the board is ‘insistent on its repression,’ and it will endeavour to put its own house in order. “Public confidence in the medical administration of public hospitals must be maintained and .strengthened. Ethical considerations may be of supreme moment to the profession, but the public is far more interested in the patient than in them. Fortunately there is abundant evidence that the medical men of New Zealand, as a body, take the same view. The need for the Dunedin inquiry and the report is regretI table, but the action of the board will be valuable as an example to other boards to thoroughly investigate all instances of reported tardy attention to urgent cases.”