ALLEGED NEGLECT

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 58, 6 September 1926, Page 10

ALLEGED NEGLECT

CHILDREN IN HOSP.TAL

BEREAVED PARENT'S STORY.

(By Telegraph.)

(Bpecial to "The Evening Post")

CHRISTCHURCH, This Day.

Allegations that the children at the Bottle Lake Hospital wero neglected were inquired into by the North Canterbury Hospital Board to-day. The inquiry was the outcome of complaints made by Mr. F. Whiley, whose child died on 2nd August. Writing to the board Mr. Whiley stated: "I do not complain that all skill and care could have saved my child, but it grieved me sadly to think that the little ones unable to speak for themselves are being subjected to such neglect. Mr. Whiley said he visited the hospital for the first time on 21st July. One of the nurses was there. Witness said to the child: "Oh, what a dirty face you have?" The nurse washed the child. The only thing that struck the witness on that occasion was that two infants,.clad only in "nighties" and probably singlets, were sitting on their beds during the whole of the two hours witness and his wife were there. On their next visit the child's fingers were sticking together. It was a pitii ful sight. On 23rd July they visited the hospital and he noticed that there was very seldom anybody in the ward unless it was a nurse who was bathing a child. As there were from nine to eleven children in the ward there was practically a continuous coughing and vomiting, and the nurse engaged in bathing the children could not attend to them all. On 24fh July he was so upset that he interviewed Mrs. Herbert, who said that she would go to the hospital and see for herself. He understood that Mrs. Herbert had taken ill. On Sunday, 25th July, when there were I quite a number of visitors, his child I was in a filthy condition. He was aware that whooping cough was a | dreadful complaint, and that it was j hard to keep the children clean. He told the matron that his child was in a I filthy condition. The matron said that they were short staffed and she and a number of the staff had been down with influenza. He asked why sh_ did not get assistance from the Public Hospital, and she said that nurses could not be got. The witness said his child had convulsions and his wife asked if it could be given a stimulant. The nurse said it would have to wait two hours, having just had a stimulant. Witness also said that from nine to eleven children were washed in the same water. Mrs. Whiley said she noticed that three children were bathed in the same water. The bath was moved from one cot to the other, and the same towel was used, but changed occasionally. She was of the opinion that the children were not attended to. When the nurse was in the ward she was often bathing the children and could not attend to the ones who were coughing. Ernest James Sutherland said that he sent his boy to the hospital in order |to get attention, but the boy did not get attention. After three weeks he did not think the child was being treated right, and he decided to take him home. He was just skin and bone. The child subsequently died. } The Rev. J. K. Archer: "Do you consider that the child might have been better treated!" —"He should have been better treated." *•■ The inquiry is proceeding.