PEEPS AT ROTORUA.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1699, 15 March 1913, Page 8

PEEPS AT ROTORUA.

ATTENDANTS AT THE BATHS. TIIE MANNERS & TIIE MAN. WITH A FEW SIDELIGHTS.

[Bt "Mure Mere."]

No. VII. Reading between the lines of the telegram which appeared in yesterday's Dominion concerning affairs at tho State bathhouses at Rotorua, one would bo inclined to infer that a general chaotic condition prevailed. Pirst, tliero is the emphasising by Dr. Scott, the ActingBalncologist, at the gathering of tho staff in his room, as to tho necessity of keeping the baths scrupulously clean, and then a wholesale denunciation by Dr. Bertram as to the attention given by tho attendants to the carrying out of the details of his patients' prescriptions. The attendants are stated to bo now in a state of high indignation; aiuV an intimate acquaintance which I had for nearly two mouths recently of the method of treatment at the bsithhouses makes me think' that they may have been given a considerable measure of cause to be righteously so. Grievances. Strong, healthy persons are at times given to having more or less imaginary grievances, and what more natural then that such patients as will be found taking a course of treatment at l?otorua— many of them short-tempered through' gouty or rheumatic troubles, others actual nervous wrecks—should iuundato their medical adviser with numerous statements of neglect which a proper investigation by tho authorities would probably discover to be highly fanciful? Those with hospital experience know how given patients with certain classes. of disease are to continual fault-finding with their attendants, and if the house-surgeons were ever ready to lend a wholly-believing ear to tho complainants' stories the nurses' lot would be a still harder, and still less happy, one. The nurses at the Eotorua Sanitarium, and tho women attendants at the big bathhouse, pavilion, are a very alert, active, and obliging Company, who exhibit that devotion to duty, and interest in their patients' welfare, so characteristic of that noble typo. of woman who is 'fortunately to be found so frequently in hospital work. It is well that they more fully possess, the patience, which ■the patient ofttimes lacks. The Attendants' Daily Round. •Tho men attendants at the Eotoruj' baths are of a staid and elderly character, as a rule, and give one the. impression from their bluff and "yours-to-coinmand" demeanour—not unmixed with a certain wholesome independence—that with some of them a part of their lifetime wai spent with the colours. Their work is divided into two shifts, morning duty ranging from six o'clock to the bath closing Irour at 1 p.m., and the afternoon attendants taking up at two o'clock .and finishing at 10 p.m., witji an interval for tea-fime.! In regard to the public baths, tho duties "■purely consist of attention to the temperature of tho waters; supervision of the showers and douches, and the distribution of towels. Tho taker of tho public baths is generally possessed of fair to firstclass bodily activity, and to him tho attendants need not be called upon to pay more than an occasional passing glance. .

The Man 'With The Prescription. • It is doubtless the private bath-takers who are complaining, and theso comprise persons in more or loss degrees of helplessness. They have stated hours for their treatment, and with a prescription, which doubtless takes the greater part of an hour in the exhaustion of its items, the attendant kept busy, although other cail3 requiring his attention may prevent him being the whole tirno with his charge, i, 'v ' ; ■ ■ "" Consequently the patient, iiot seasoned .to tho treatment, may be left gradually parboiling with the slim eriduranco of a neurotic temperament, at a touyperaturu of 105dcg. IV for tlioso few moments which seem hours, and fray to the last shreds tho littlo bit of patience which he may at ordinary times possess. Or, again, in regard to his prescribed "pack," wrapped and bound up in blankets and 1 hot towels till ho feels absolutely mummified, and just as tightly swathed, he lies sweltering on his couch, feeling that he must presently melt away or drown in the perspiration. The attendant has gone, forth on other business. 01/ Where,/Oh Where, Has He Gone? Steady gazing at the centrepiece on. tho white-plastered ceiling is becoming monotonous; a buzzing fly will persist in settling imtatingly on tho tip of the r.cse, and not a hand can lio disentangle from tho bindings to dislodge him; the stationary tly acts as a decoy to liig fellows, who. previously had been content to flit through a stray shaft of sunbeam, hnd they rest also on the lobster-lilce countenance which'poops out at the head of the mountain of_ blankets. Tho impatient patient rolls his head from sido to side, but tho flies take no notice, and continue on with their game of hide-and-seek among the perspiration beads, which tho head-rolling makes more numerous. Vc-ste! Where is that attendant? Footsteps sound along the corridor; relief, as anxiously awaited as that of Mafeking, seems imminent, but thoy pass, and.fade nway. Someone again approaches; a shout, as from one marooned on a. mudflat, with the tide rising, and the door opens. It is another attefidant—must commandeer him, by any strategy, whatever. "Want to get out?" he queries." "Yes," the perspiring patient gasps. "How long have you been in tho pack?" "Must bo.days!" hazavds the patient. (His prescription says twenty minutes.) "Wondor where Jim has gone?" musea the official. "Don't l worry about Jim," says the blanketed man in fervid sympathy; "he'll be all right; we'll say time is up. Do let mo out!" The appeal would move a heart of stone, anil the attendant commences the unwinding process. A Good Subject. "Lor", you do sweat," he ejaculates, in the fulsomeness of his admiration, of the expertness of the packing. "There's some of 'em what don't perspire a bit, and then you don't think you're doin' 'em a bit o' good. But you make up for 'em." And tho "study" of the rapt gazer thinks also, in his pearly watery beadiness, that he doe 3. "Now dry yourself well, and take a rest," adjures the attendant, as ho departs, in answer to a distant tinkling hell, and tho cure-seeker is still "resting" when "Jim" returns. "Wot?" he exclaims in perturbation, "Yon 'out' already ? I've only been away ten minutes," and he slipys his watch as evidence. "Just slipped along for a cup of tea," he adds. ' "Hope it was a nice blond," satirically remarks the resting one, as lie notes that it is not only the ladies who "just dole" on a cup of tea in tho afternoon. Whsn An Attendant Erred— There was ono occasion on which .1 thought that perhaps an attendant couid liavo been justly given a gentle reprimand, ibut it also had its humorous side. Tho bather, especially one recovering from a period of illness, naturally approaches the "euro" with a littlo trepidation, and is inclined to be all that that splendid word "finicky" expresses. There wa3 on© gentleman, who had been undergoing treatment for,a.week, the details of a complex prescription being carried out in the morning, while in the afternoon lie only, took a sulphur bath. He iwns unawnre of the prevalence of the shift duty, and on going along on the first morning of his second week he discovered new attendants, and being informed that his attendant of tho previous week was on the afternoon, he decided to change his itinerary. Ho had got used to the methods of that particular man, and was desirous of continuing under his care. In tho afternoon he found his attendant, with a i'ollow-ollicial, .sitting on a couch av.aiting the receipt of custom. "I will take my prescription treatment in the afternoons this week," said he. "Oh, you can't do that!" said the strango attendant. "Alb," 'ere had you all the mornings of lost week, and ifs

only fair you should give the others a turn."

—But Is Not Reproved. 'i'lie patient, a kindly-tempered, roildmnniicrctl limn, quietly replied that he did not desire to inconvenience anybody, but lie knew ".Alb's" ways, and thought perhaps, if 110 injustice would ensue, lie woulu continue as his protege. • The other official, however, thought it "was not right," and "Alb" only uuenthu-. siastically said lie would do it "if you like," so the gentleman said he would merely have a bath, and resume his full treatment again the next morning. Here was an instance where, Avith. a person of another temperament, ' the attendant would doubtless have been told that it was tho patient who sliould first lie considered, and not the whimsies of tlie paid officer. The "Dangers" Attendant. "Some people think this a easy job," said an attendant to ine one day. "So perhaps it is in a manner of speaking, it's light work, but a man has something to put up with. Look at his risk of catching colds! Here all day, as_you may say, walking about in a hot atmosphere, on warm floorings and a-leaning over hot sulphury baths and then a-havin' to go out into tho night air. , Why, I can never get my feet warm in bed at night; I suffer from cold feet something terrible I do." I sympathised with him, and said that I understood "cold feet" were "sort of constitutional," but lie was quite convinced it was "the work." "Scrupulously!" Dr. Scott's reference to the necessity nf keeping the bathhouses "scrupulously clean" need'cause no suspicion thut the magnificent pavilion is being allowed to fall into a state of dinginess. Go into the institution any time of the day and you are almost sure to. see an attendant or small boy busily cleaning the metaU work, or swabbing the floors. The parqueted flooring and tiled and plastered walls lend themselves to ready cleaning, and dust and microbes are not allowed to harbour long.

However, the Rotorua bathhouses are State-owned; are elaborately equipped and comprehensively laid out for the treatment of the nation's afflicted; and the means being at hand, it is only right to expect that those requiring it should receive that attention which the appliances and staff are there to provide. Dr. Bertram's strictures, therefore, should not be allowed to pass unheeded in the proper quarter, but demand the fullest investigation. My observations lead me to think that from such an inquiry the staff in tho mass would emcrgo by 110 means tho losers.