PLUNKET SOCIETY

Evening Star, Issue 23688, 23 September 1940, Page 6

PLUNKET SOCIETY

MONTHLY MEETING The monthly meeting of the committee of the Dunedin branch of the Plunket Society was held on Friday. Those present were Mrs Joseph M‘George (in the chair), Lady Sidey, Mesdames Reid, Cleghorn, Clapperton, Dawson, Bruce, Paris, Mark Hanan, Williams, Gallaway, Mandeno, and Taverner, and Miss Theomin. The August report from the Truby King-Harris Hospital was received. During the month 44 patients were admitted (15 mothers and 29 babies), 44 patients were discharged (15 mothers and 29 babies), and the greatest number of patients in residence on any one day was nine mothers and 20 babies. The sources of admission were Temuka, Clyde, Clinton, Timaru, Heriot, Middlemarch, Balclutha, Green Island, Moa Flat, and the city and suburbs. Two premature babies were admitted during the month, and both are thriving. There were the usual changing of Plunket trainees, 19 in the outgoing term and 21 in the incoming term. The charge nurse of the central Plunket rooms reported that there was an increase in the work of the nurses last month, the number of new cases coming under supervision being slightly more than in July. Lectures and demonstrations were given by Miss Carter to the Fireside Club of the Caversham Methodist Church. The subject taken was ‘ The Plunket Society,’ and the nurse explained the objects of tho society and the work of tho nurses. Miss Liddell gave a mothercraft lecture to a class of 40 girls at the Girls’ High School, and throb classes of V.A.D.s have been given lectures on infant care, these last including demonstrations. Older children's clinics continue to bo held, and attendances have been good. The summary of the Dunedin'Plimket nurses’ reports stated that tho figures for last month were:—Babies on the list, 1,755; older children on the list, 744; visits paid to homes, 1,438; visits paid to offices, 4,524 (mothers 2,407, babies 1,895, older children 260) ; now cases for month (babies only), 129; babies breast-fed (including partly), new cases, 111. Out-stations visited were Mosgicl. Abbotsford. Green Island, Burnside, Concord, Ravensbourne, Burkes, Sawyers Bay, Port Chalmers, M.iddlcmarch, On tram, Macandrew Bay, Waikouaiti, Dunback, Hampden, Moeraki-Kartigi, Shag Point, Seaclilf,

Pnketoraki, Karitanc, Waitati, Warrington. Goodwood, Omimi, and Kilmog. Visits paid to the suburban Plunket rooms by the nurses were Anderson’s Bay 5, Caversham Kindergarten 9, Mornington 12, Boslyn 9, Northoast Valley 9, St. Clair 4, and South Dunedin 2 to 4 p.m. daily (except Saturdays and Sundays). Permission wans granted the Plunket nurse of the Boslyn district for the Roslyn Plunket rooms to be open an extra afternoon a week in order to servo mothers and babies of the Wakari area. Arrangements were completed for the holding of the society’s annual Daffodil Day street sale and collection on Friday, October 4.