Friction at Meeting

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 158, 22 July 1937, Page 9

Friction at Meeting

CARE OF OLD PEOPLE

How Many Homes Should There Be? DANNEVIRKE QUOTA The • admission of Waipawa cases to a Napier old people 's 'home caused some friction at the meeting of the Park Island Joint Committee in Napier yesterday. Mr. L. Stein (Dannevirke) contended that the committee had erred in allowing patients to be sent to Napier from other districts. Mr.- Stein said that the home at Dannevirke, operated by Mdss M. Canning, had not been kept up to the quota of 20 agreed to. To allow a patient to choose the home he wished to ehter was wrong. "This man has a daughter in Napier," explained the chairman, Mr A. E. Bedford, "and he wants to be near ' >, • Mr. Stein: Oh boshl Mr. Bedford: Excuse me, Mr. Stein, I am not talking bosh. Mr. Stein: But that is just what yon are talking. Mr. Bedford: Then dt is not much use piy talking at all. Mr. Bedford thereupon resumed his seat and Dr. J. Allan Berry remarked: "I think Mr. Stein should be polite to the ehair." . ? Mr. Stein: I need no lessons from youl Mr. W. H. Eathbone then moved, in view of the moral guarantee to Miss . Canning, that the Dannevirke home should be built up to 20. "These are all old men not in the best of health," said Mr. Bedford. "I do not think that at is right to put these men in an ambnlance and send them to a place to which they resent being sent. We would perhaps have them in bospital. " It was then discovered that a similar motion had -been passed at the January meeting. "Will you authorise me to take the responsibility of moving these very siek men to Dannevirke in the ambulance?" asked Mr. Bedford. "They cannot be sent by train, and I will not accept the responsibility of shifting them in my car against their will. "Every Teasonably sound man an the homes left us when he got his pension," he added. "Those who are left are ill." The motion was deferred until the report of the medical superintendent, Dr. J. J. Foley, in regard to the home at Dannevirke had been discussed in eamera. It was iinally decided to inform all proprietors of homes that tio agreement existed regarding the numbers an 'the homes. Mr. W. H. Eathbone: I want my vote recorded against the motion. We are not playing fair — I think we have treated Miss Canning shamefully. Mr. Bedford pointed out that the motion was inconsistent with a previous oue etating that patients should go where they were told. "The crux of the matter is that we have three homes where there as only room for two," said Mr. Eathbone. "The third home was not opened with the eonsent of the committee. I think there was some ulterior motive, and it is up to the committee to decide whether we have three homes or two."