European

Plea For Better European Hospital in Moresby

IF the Administration would come into the onen anri tpll tVip npnnip

what the°real Reason was

lag in providing In adeoSate hos

pitarfof Xn lolal

residents and the Town Advisory Council could perhaps help, said Mr. E. A. James at the Panua-N Guinea Legislative Council meeting in Moresby on Mav 10 „ .. ..

He said that it was time something more was done in providing adequate hospital accommodation for the European and native residents of the area, than making about it in the Legislative Council. Hospitalisation for the peopie was no nearer now than hve

Dl ‘ un JJ? e y

(Director of Health) as saying that plans for the European section of the hospital were “under considerati°n” in Melbourne but that there ccfmplet 0 ed h Sder of thrTe yt y h eSl completed unaei three years.

Mr. James said that the present European hospital had been built before the war as an 11-bed hospital, and was expected to cater for an estimated maximum population of 500. To-day, the European

population was 5,000 and the number of inmates at the hospital rose at times to 30. There was complete lack of quiet, comfort, privacy and the relaxation without which it was difficult for sick people to get well.

Local residents w’ho could, went South for medical attention, and only as a last resort committed themselves or their relations to the Moresby hospital. The staff made superhuman efforts to give the ser vice they did, and they w r orked under appalling conditions.

The local Administration and Health Department could not be blamed—he believed it was the fault of some person or persons in Mel bourne or Canberra.

An overseas visitor had said that the native hospital, in comparison with that provided for Europeans could at least give its patients fresh air.

But others said that the best pur pose served by the native hospital was that it cured malingerers—if you threatened a boy with a spell in hospital he quickly became well, unless he w r as, indeed, very ill.

Mr. James said, if finance were the cause of the delay, he believed that funds could be found in the Territory. Among other things, he suggested a local Government lottery from which the native in habitants were NOT barred. He said that there was plenty of evidence to show that the gambling spirit was well established in native

culture before the European arrived and that, in any event, many natives now 7 invested in Australian lotteries —and, he added, if Father Dwyer objected to lotteries (as he had when Mr. James suggested it be fore) then it was just through fear of competition!

Mr. H. Niall (Lae District Com missioner) w T hile partly agreeing.

said Mr. James's viewpoint was parochial. For several years after the war, Moresby had the Territory’s best hospital. The Administration policy had been then to build out station hospitals first —as, for ex ample, at Sohano and Kavieng. In cases of urgent medical necessity.

Port Moresby people could get away quickly South. Out-station people could not.

Mr. D. Barrett said that the Health Department was spending no less than £BOO.OOO of its annual allocation on health services for Europeans, natives and Asians. He disagreed with local loans and lotteries and believed that, as a special Commonwealth grant for capital works on hospitals was obviously not favoured in Canberra, they should be financed by economies in other Administration depart ments.