OFF TO THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2467, 21 May 1915, Page 7

OFF TO THE WAR

DOCTORS AND NURSES CRITICAL PLIGHT OF LOCAL HOSPITAL So many doctors and nurses havo resigned from tho stuff of the Wellington Hospital to no to the frout that the position at tho institution is critical. At tho meeting of the Hospital Board yesterday it was announced that Drs. Myers and Marshall, house surgeons, wero resigning and offering their services to the military. Then it was stated that Drs. Stout and M'Caiv wero resigning from the honorary staff. Also, the resignations of several more sisters wero mentioned. The medical superintendent (Dr. Barclay) addressing the board, said tffat the position had become serious regarding the Hospital Staff. The two house surgeons would be leaving in a month or six weeks, and he feared that there would be great difficulty in replacing them. Three men were going up for examination in Dunedin, in June, but they were already bespoken for othor hospitals. Dunedin was the only New Zealand source of supply. He had communicated with Australia, but was afraid that the position would be the same there. If so, the only thine would be to call on the city doctors to help. One doctor, by the way, had offered assistance. In regard to the nurses, Dr. Barclay said that the position was even more critical. There were only three sisters left in the institution. If there was any further strain on tho nursing staff in this place matters would become oven worse. Particularly might that become the case if tho military set up another hospital here, and asked Wellington to staff it. Frankly, it would be impossible. He did not quite know what should; be done, hut thought some suggestion should be made to the military authorities to refrain from taking any more nurses from the Wellington Hospital, which had already done its duty. The Rev. H. Van Staveren mentioned that a local doctor had told him that ho would render what assistance he could while the scarcity of staff doctors existed. It was resolved that, the chairman of the board (Mr. H. Baldwin), the chairman of the Hospital Committee (Mr. J. Smith), and the medical superintendent (Dr. Barclay) should wait on the Minister of Defence on the subject.