BEDS FOR COTTAGE HOSPITALS

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 8 July 1915, Page 3

BEDS FOR COTTAGE HOSPITALS

AN APPEAL TO THE COUNTRY DISTRICTS

The following article has been sent by Major Grirdier to the ECHO for publication :—

One of the efforts on behalf of our wounded soldiers which is being made in Auckland at' the present time should be of special interest to dwellers in country districts. Probably very few people have passed several years at a distance from a town or village in the colonies without experiencing the want of medical and nursing assistance in time of illness; indeed, : it is one of the things which will never be known how much suffering has been endured, and how many lives lost through want of the necessary aid at a critical time. Everyone agrees that the establishment of small cottage hospitals would be the best way to meet this problem but hitherto no organised effort has been made to start such homes.

At the present time many of our rural problems have had to drop into the background as our thoughts are so fully occupied with the national crisis ; but it is timely to call attantion to the effort which is being made is Auckland to provide and equip fully a hospital ward of thirty or more beds, with the idea of offering them to the military authorities for use, if required, for wounded soldiers, and ultimately to use the equipment to establish one or more Cottage Hospitals in remote country places.

It must be realised that many nurses will return to New Zealand unfit to take up their ordinary work again, and it is hoped that the establishment of the Cottage Hospital system would open a channel of employment less arduous than private nursing, while their small war pension, if any, would be augmented by the fees received from cases taken in the hospital, and they would be enabled to make a home for themselves and at the same tjme do a very useful work where it is much needed.

No one will deny that the idea is an excellent one, kindly conceived and practically carried as it is by the friends who are working for the ward in Auckland. Already ten beds are very nearly completed, and are being used for demonstration and instructional purposes.

It any residents of this district would like to take a practical interest in the work, either by working for the equipment or collecting materials and funds, they should communicate with Mrs Whyte, of " Castlebar," Auckland, or with Major Girdier, N.Z.M.C, Westminster Lodge, Khyber Pass, Auckland.