MATERNITY CASES

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 102, 27 October 1933, Page 12

MATERNITY CASES

PETONE AND LOWER HUTT

HOSPITAL BOARD'S

DISCUSSION

At n meeting of the Hospital Board last evening the general purposes committee recommended that the following reply be sent to the Director-General of Health regarding attendance on indigent maternity cases in the Petone-Lower Hutt district: —(a) "As regards ante-natal supervision, the clinics established by the Department in connection with the Plunket system offer adequate facilities and )t would be an unnecessary expense for the board to operate parallel clinics. When ante-natal medical advice is needed patients are now referred to doctors by the Plunket nurses and indigent patients get this advice free in accordance with the usual medical practice, (b) Under the present system there is no exploitation of private nurses by the board. The £3 3s is paid by way o£ assistance and the nurses charge an additional fee which is paid by the patient, or often by relatives. No complaint of exploitation has been received by the board, (c) Of the 30 assisted cases shown as attended by private midwives, January-June, 1033, probably about 19 have been attended in the nurses' homes and 11 in their own homes. So, of the total 67 assisted in that period, only 11 have been attended in their own homes and 56 in some variety of hospital. Perhaps some of these 56 could* have been attended in their own homes, but, in many cases, there would i be inadequate facilities (very poor homes, I people-in lodgings, single girls, etc.), and even if we had a district midwife, such eases would have to be cared for in some hospital. To coerce patients to accept attendance in their own homes instead of in "hospital is questionable policy when the home conditions are more or less bad. The appointment of a district midwife would thus only cope with about half the problem or less, and would probably save the board considerably under £200 a year in direct assistance on the present plan and would probably cost in salary, transport, relief, and, assistance about £350 per annum, wifli an initial expenditure of about' £250 for car and equipment. "Advantages of present system:—(a) It gives the patient choice of nurse, (b) It provides the elastic service that is necessary for the varying demand. (c)'Tt minimises exploitation by those who could meet the expense themselves, (d) It gives some employment to nurses already established in the district who are having a struggle to keep going, (c) It avoids all overhead expenses and waste. The committee is of the opinion that the proposals of the Department of Public Health will prove unnecessarily expensive to the Hospital Board and much less advantageous to those who require treatment, as compared with the present arrangements; and wil) fail to give as efficient and reliable service as that at present^ in operation." Tho chairman (Mr. F. Castle) referred to the valuable work which had been done in connection with this matter by a subcommittee, consisting of Dr. T. L. Parr and Messrs. E. N. Campbell and A. J. MeCurdy. He was satisfied that it would be necessary for the Health Department to put up a stronger case before the board could agree to its recommendation. That, of .course, did not settle the question of there being two nurses in the Paekakariki and Paraparaumu districts, where it was considered that only one was necessary. However, that matter could be left over in the meantime. The recommendation of the committee was agreed to.