MATERNITY CASES

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 227, 22 June 1944, Page 4

MATERNITY CASES

Dealing With Shortage Of Accommodation STATEMENT BY MINISTER “The Health Department has already taken steps to deal with the shortage of maternity, accommodation in Wellington, which may become acute, in six months’ time,” said the Minister of Health, Mr. Nordmeyer, when remarks on the subject by Mrs. Knox Gilmer yesterday were referred to him. “It may be necessary,” he added, to require the Wellington Hospital Board, of which Mrs. Gilmer is a member, to assist in meeting the position. “Negotiations are in progress between the Health Department and the Alexandra Home trustees with a view to keeping the home functioning at least till the new St, Helens Hospital is completed. In addition certain other steps are being taken to ensure that adequate accommodation is available. Details of the arrangements made will be announced shortly.”

WHERE ARE MOTHERS TO GO? Position Seen As Desperate “There is. an urgent cry now for more babies, but where are mothers to go to bring their babies into the world?” asked Mrs. Knox Gilmer yesterday. “A shocking and desperate position has developed in Wellington city maternity hospitals and unless positive action Is taken speedily it will be still worse. The position at the Alexandra Home is that no one can be assured of admission after November. “Maternity hospitals in Wellington come under the Health Department, not the Wellington Hospital Board, but the hospital board board does direct the two maternity homes at Lower Hutt, and subsidizes a private home at Upper Hutt. Who cares whether it is a matter for the Government or for the hospital board?” Yesterday morning, Mrs. Gilmer added, she was called by telephone by a woman who wanted to book in at the Alexandra Home for her sixth child, and was refused because no cases could be booked for later titan November, nor could she find accommodation at any other maternity hospital. Woman Going to Picton.

Inquiries made yesterday revealed one case where a Wellington woman had sought in vain for admission to maternity hospitals as far away as . Palmerston North. In desperation she is now going to Picton to have her baby.