"STAR CHAMBER" INQUIRY

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2698, 18 February 1916, Page 7

"STAR CHAMBER" INQUIRY

HOSPITAL BOARD'S PROTEST. _At the month],v meeting of the Wellington. Hospital and Charitable Aid Board, held yesterday, the following committee recommendation -was adopted :— "That a protest has been sent to tho Inspector-Gcneral of Hospitals in rogard to the manner in which the Assistant Inspector (Miss Maclean) is conducting the inquiry in regard to certain duties alleged to be performed by tho nursing staff. The Acting-Modica] Superintendent and the matron wcro not allowed to be present, or represented, and they were not officially notified of n,. le or scope of the examination. l.iio Minister of .Public Health has been respectfully requested to furnish a cop}' of . the report, and advised ijiat when any similar inquiry is being held' at the Hospital, the principal officors (tho Medical Superintendent and tho matron) should bo notified and allowed to bo in attendance or represented." .Mr C. M. Luko said that he felt it his duty to protest against the highhanded methods adopted in respect to the inquiry, and resented such interference on tho part of Government officers in the conduct of tho affairs of the Hospital. Ilio IW. H. Van Staveren also entered an emphatic protest against such Star Chamber inquiries as the one referred to, and was of the opinion that the least courtesy tho board could expect was that the Medical Superintendent and the matron should have been invited to attend the inquiry. Tho Rev. J. K. Elliott objected strongly to the method of tho inquiry, and would like to record an indignant protest in tho matter. It was only British fair , play that they should be represented when it was being laid down how the Hospital should be governed. Mrs. Wilford also recorded a strong protest to the action of Miss M'Lean. 'l iio recommendation, was carried without a dissentient voice.