DISMISSAL OF NURSE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3874, 22 November 1928, Page 3

DISMISSAL OF NURSE.

FURTHER STATEMENTS. Auckland, Nov. 21. The case of nurse E. A. Blackie, who was dismissed from the hospital staff by a special committee appointed by the Auckland Hospital Board for sending a letter to a prisoner at Mount Eden gaol who had been a patient and in which was an indiscreet reference to the lady superintendent, was again considered by the Board to-day. ’ After a somewhat heated discussion lasting an hour it was decided ‘that the nurse should appear before the Board at a special meeting next Monday so that the Board might hear what she had to say in defence. In a letter to the Board the nurse said: “I think that to have my character and my career destroyed and to'be dismissed at a moment’s notice is too severe a punishment for what I have done.” Mr. M. Laing, a member of the Board, said he did not think it was the Board’s business to whom the girl wrote as long as she did her work. In his opinion she should only have been punished for being out late. The chairman (Mr. W. Wallace) said all the nurses were in the habit ■of coining in late. Discipline must be maintained. Miss Blackie said in her letter that the matron was “going soft.” A member: Perhaps she meant softhearted (laughter). The chairman added that the nurses were actually getting in through the maids’ quarters and climbing over their beds. If the) allowed this it would be the end of discipline. Regarding the statement of Miss Blackie that she had been dismissed without her wages, the chairman said these had not been collected by her and were waiting for her. The resolution to hear the nurse was then carried.