1925

Don’t feed the patients

The smuggling of drink and food for the use of patients into the Central Hospital, Galway, by ignorant but well-meaning people, was referred to at the last meeting of the Galway Hospitals and Dispensaries Committee, and steps were taken to bring home the gravity of the practice to the persons responsible.

In the course of the discussion, it was stated that recently an attempt had been made to pass a cooked chicken and a bottle of whiskey through one of the windows of the fever hospital. The parcel was intended for a patient suffering from typhoid.

As is well-known, starvation is part of the treatment in typhoid. The use of solid food is likely to cause perforation of the bowel, with fatal consequences. Fortunately for the patient for whom the food was intended, the parcel was intercepted by the nursing staff. We hope that it is only necessary to call attention to the matter to have the dangerous practice stopped.

Pictured: Members of the cast of the Seamount College, Kinvara, production of Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat which was staged in the Kinvara Community Centre in November 1991.