The Wellington Hospital.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XVIII, Issue 1722, 19 August 1885, Page 2

The Wellington Hospital.

Thu management of the Wellington Hobji;. )! is a subject of interest to country settlers as well as to people living in Wellington, because cases of severe illness or accident sometime... require to be sent there from the countrydistricts, We gather from reports by Di Grabham, the Inspector of Hospitals, laid before Parliament a day or two ago, that the Wellington Hospital is getting filled up to a great extent, by aged and worn out people, who ought to be kept in a refuge and who, having no positive disease, are not proper subjects for Hospital treatment. On this aud other points Dr Grabham reports ; “ There are this day (Ist February 1885), 69 in-patients under treatment, an unusually small number. Of this number 19 men and 2 women are fit subjects for a refuge. Three of the male patients are suffering from delirium tremens, one of them being very violent and noisy. They all occupy beds in one of the large wards, to the disturbance and great detriment of the other patients. There is no separate accommodation for such cases, the private wards being occupied for other purposes and not being suited for violent persons.” These remarks raise the question of what is to be done with persons suffering from delirium tremens ? Dr states that there is no separate accommodation for each cases at the Wellington Hospital. The Inspector of Prisons has declared in several of his reports that persons suffering from delirium tremens ought not to be sent to gaol, because they cannot obtain proper treatment there, and besides upset tbe existing system of discipline. The Governor of the Addington Gaol, in Canterbury, recently addressed a statement to tbe Government declaring that he had six men suffering from delirium tremens, in his prison, and 11 that the place was transformed into a Bedlum of raving lunatics,” who could not be looked after by the Gaol steff. Now what is to be done with this class of cases ? Why should not the Wellington Hospital, which cost an enounous sum of money, have two or three small isolated rooms for the reception of such cases ? Such rooms could be built for £2OO to £3OO of lay. The case of the man Hastie was a horrible scandal, and that could have been avoided had there been a small room for his reception in the Wellington Hospital. Such cases, whether arising in town or country, ought to be sent either to the Hospital or the Asylum.