HOSPITAL VISITORS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 54, 1 September 1944, Page 7

HOSPITAL VISITORS

"NOT MUCH IMPROVEMENT"

The question of limiting the number ?u Patle, nts> visitors was again before the Wellington' Hospital ' Board last night. Mrs. Knox Gilmer said that as far as she could see, there had not been much improvement following public statement made by the chairman Mr. H. F. Toogood, pointing Ct now the large number-of visitors was hindering the work of an already short-staffed institution. It seemed that it might be necessary to revert to the disc system. Mr.- Toogood said that a difficulty with any system of passes was that the Wellington Hospital had about ten entrances, and each one would have to be manned to allow the staff to use £ enJ w£i le keeping the public in | check. The board could make a regu- I lation against trespassing. The num-i per of visitors at the Hutt Hospital on occasions was as high as eight per patient, and sometimes at the Wellington Hospital patients had up to ten visitors each. "It has become a ramp, a Sunday parade,'? Mr. Toogood declared. It was not fair to sick people to have such laughing and talking and smoking, too, going on alongside them, He felo very strongly about the matter, and he hoped the board would implement its intention to remedy the position. Mr. W. S. Cederholm thought it would be altogether too drastic io make tJ% *% aS.ai. nst trespassing apply to bona fide visitors in a public institu«w; 1 suggested that-the former! system of issuing two metal discs per! patient would be adequate. Mr. G. Petherick said that he* understood a sister had power to restrict the number of visitors to ? two for each . Mr. Toogood: Legal power, not phy-. ct^ r< A * ?' °'Shea. chairman of the staff and house committee, said that it was proposed to display notices throughout the hospital restricting the SfJMP t0 two »<* Patient He asked that this method be tried out nn™e ?$[ °] her action was decided "f^-.We do appeal to the people npt^tlll^ll a? d the fiends of patients to exercise a bit of discretion, which will make all the difference between an irksome regulation dd jreedom m seein S patients," he

UhS Sboard SUggeStiOn "^ agreed