LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 173, 16 April 1919, Page 8

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

HOSPITAL REFORM

Sir,—By publishing in Thk Dominion of to-day's dato an article on English hospital reforms, referring especially to' tlto reduction of liuurs worked by public hospital nurses, you have rendered a valuable service to the 'nurses of New Zealand, to none of whom similar reforms havo been extended. From your article, which appears to be derived from tho London "Times" of February 20, it n» evident that English hospital boards are far ahead of New Zealand in their consideration for the health and happiness of their nursing staffs. At the Wellington Public Hospital the. nurses work seven days a week, with n. minimum of eight hours' work per day. The only holiday they receive is one of three weeks per annum, l!i: date or which they receive, no warning, to enable them to make necessary preparations, being simply notified to pad; up and disappear for three weeks. I'raiii your article it appears that conditions art> very different in England, the following being tho working time of nurses at tonic, well-known public 'hospitals: Charing Cross Hospital, six days per week; also at St. Mary's Hospital. At St. Bartholomew's Hospital the rule is half a day lioliday one week and a whole day tho next week. At Middlesex Hospital three hours each day off, also two days a month. At Guy's Hospital, one day, ana tw.i half-days a month holiday. 11 New South Wales by recent Act of Parliament it has been made illegal to work nurses more than six days per woek, one whole day and higlit beinfi allowed per week to enable nurses to ger. a. complete change from the environment of sick'wards and misory. The Wellington Hospital Board, when the subject of nurses' hours has been brought before it, has put up tho defence that notwithstanding that seven days per week are worked by nurses there are applications in plenty for appointments as probationers, and this ma- bo true, but it would be interesting to know what percentage of such probationers leavq the institution before they iiavo served the full period necessary to become qualified nurses Does not tho necessity for rest, fresh air, and 6-in-shine for the nurses appeal to the board? ]s not stamina required to resist disease? Did not nearly one hundred nurses become affected by tho recent epidemic at Wellington, Christehurch, and Auckland Public Hospitals respectively? These arc fair questions for the hospital boards to answer Unfortunately there is among the nursing staff, no organisation or union for the preservation of their interests. ' Should The Dominion give this matter publicity and use its influence in favour of this necessary reform at New Zealand s public hospitals it will receive the grabtude of those who have adopted the noblest of 'professions—T am, etc., HOSPITAL REFORM. Wellington, April 15, 1919.