NURSES' PAY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 240, 4 July 1919, Page 8

NURSES' PAY

REQUEST FOR IMPROVEMENT MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT ' INTERESTED The pay and working conditions of nurses in "public hospitals were discussed by a deputation of members of the Industries Committee which waited on the Minister of Public Health (the Hon. G. W. Russell) vesterday morning. Mr. C. A. Wilkinson, chairman, of the committee, said that they had found that tliero was no uniformity in the pay of nurses and probationers all over tha country. The suggestion the committee made was that probationers should receive- .£1 a. week for the first year of service and increases in the second and third years. Stuff nurses were paid at rates, from c£SO to .£IOO a year at present, which the committee did not consider adequate. Nor were matrons in some hospitals given adequate salaries. It was suggested that tho annual holiday should bo increased to one month in each year. The request was supported by Dr. Newman and Mr. H. Poland. The Minister said that he was pleasprt to receive the deputation, taking it as evidence of a quickening interest in public health administrator In years past the Department hud been starved, anil ho took it that if a progressive policy were brought down it would have their support. (Hear, hear.) The root of the difficulty was monoy. He explained, however, that the staffing and administration was not undor the control of tho Government but of the local authorities. Ho agreed that if a. circular wero to bo eciit round by the Department the local authorities might take notice of it. He would consult his officers on the matter. He had recently called a conference of hospital authorities, and probably this mutter might best bo.placed before the boards at that conference. With regard to tho probationers, he pointed out that they went into hospitals to learn a profession. Tho hospital had no right over them when they had completed their period of training, and they received their board and lodging and uniform from tho institution. . Mr. Wilkinson They have to pay for their outfit. . Mr. Russell: "Yes, I know something about it. One of my daughters is in a .hospital, and I can sympathise with much that has been said, but I am speaking now as a Minister, and not as the father of a probationer." He went on to say that Aen a nurse had finished her traiuing should could walk out and earn three guineas a week at private nursing, or she could establish a private, hospital. Ho was afraid that hospital boards, who had an accurate knowledge of probationers' duties, would not appreciate tho suggestions a'bout pay made by Mr. U llkinson They wero not at all short ot probationers. Another fact was that nurses had to, pay .£2O for a year's training, but they were quite willing to do it because the training enabled them to "o out as practising niidwives. He wae quite in accord with tho suggestion that there ought to bo superannuation for nurse 3, but tho obstacle- to this had always been that 'nurses wero not Government servants. He would like to see local bodies tako moro advantage of the powers Eiven to them under tho Local Bodies Superannuation Act. In tho meantime a private fund had lreen established by Dr. Lirido Ferguson, amounting now to ,£lO 000, and the Government proposed to subsidise every payment from tho fund bv 10s. in the pound. 'Ho considered the proposal lor a month's leave in the year, or perhaps two periods of a. fortnight, was a good one, and lie would bring it before the Hospital Conference. In regard to the suggestion that a week-end leave should be, "iven to every nurso onco a month, ho was afraid that this would present difficulties. The whole question resolved itself into ouo of money cost. If Parliament would Ri-nnt the money to raise tho hospital subsidy to, say, 255., the extra iive shillings could be devoted to giving increased pay and better conditions to the staffs. ■ Mr. Poland: We will provide the money if the Government asks for it. _ . Mr. Russell: I am not Minister of Finance.'

•V pontifieial celebration of the Serbian OrHioilox Liturgy took place in St. Au"iietine'a Church, South Kensington, recefllly, when Bishop Bury; Anplican Bishop for North and Central Europe, welcomed thb visitors on behalf of the whole English Church. The service was interrupted at one point br a clergyman in the congregation, who protested "against this idohtory in the Church of England." ■ , ~ Owing to the spread of wart disease restrictions aro bc-ing placed on, the importation of seed potatoes from Scotland into England and Wales. Only diseuseffeo potatoes and varieties immune from wart disease nioy lie imported.