THE MATERNITY HOSPITAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2896, 15 September 1909, Page 40

THE MATERNITY HOSPITAL.

(THE CHARITABLE AID BOARD APPOINTMENT. DR BATCHELOR SPEAKS OUT. Dr F. C. Batchelor returned to Dunedin jen Saturday morning from his holiday trip, and was waited upon by a Daily Times reporter with a request, in view of the interest token in the dispute between the Charitable Aid Board and the University Council, for information bearing upon the object for which the Forth Street Maternit; Hospital was established. " I baro been receiving the papers," said Dr Batchelor, "-while I was away, and so •m familiar with the dispute which has Mriaeo. The history of the Home is thi9: Some years ago, When the late Mr Seddon

1 decided to establish maternity hospitals in the large centres of this Dominion partly to provide for women of the poorer classes in the towns apd from the country districts who could not obtain adequate attendance in their own homes, and partly with the view of providing more efficiently trained maternity nurses throughout the country, I made a visit to Wellington! specially to interview him and point out the necessity of giving our doctors, as well as our nurses, a more thorough training m this branch of fcheir work. He received sny suggestion in a broadminded spirit, and quite realised that special provisions for this town were ungenly needed, and was in the first instance inclined to open the Maternity Hospital here on different lines to those in other centres, in consequence of the presence of our Medical School. He then made the suggeeton to our local board that it should hand over the Forth strive* site for a maternity hospital in exchange for a site for the Fever Hospital. A good deal of difficulty arose in attempting to arrange matters, and, finally, Mr Seddon became so dissatisfied with the action of the local beard and the hard bargain its members attempted to drive that he refused to have anything more to do with them, and started the St. Helens Maternity Hospital here on the same basis as in other centres. The whole affair was very paltry, for it must be fully apparent that the est*blshment of both these institutions would have greatly benefited the town; of course both now exist, but much unneoesary delay occurred in consequence of the attitude then taken by our local board. On these negotiations falling through, Mr Seddon met me very liberally, and said, 'You start a maternity hospital in Dunedin and I will help you.' He gave the board a epecail grant of £500 towards building and equipping a maternity hospital ; at the same time I succeeded in raising some £500 from the general public, which also carried a subsidy of 24s in the pound, and altogether I think something over £1500 was received by the board towards this object- What we had in view was to provide for a poor class of patients and single women who could not obtain an entry to St. Helens, and, further, it was distinctly and definitely understood by the boa-rd when accepting these moneys that the Hospital was to ensure our senior medical students receiving an efficient course of instr action in obstetrics. " With regard to the drawing up of the by-lawa; naturally enough none of the members of the Charitable Board knew anything about a maternity hospital or the proper method of conducting one, so this matter was left in the hands of the then chairman, Mr Stevenson, and mjeelf. We took a great deal of trouble, secured the bj-laws from a number of similar institutions in Australasia and elsewhere, and drew out what we considered very suitable by-laws to meet our conditions, and these we presented at a meeting of the board. These by-laws were presented to the board, and lay on the table for three successive months before they were finally ordered to be - printed ; some 1000 copies were struck off, and the institution has been conducted under these by-laws ever since. A copy w«« at that time 6ent to the University Council, "Tha* the present beard accepted the by-laws is proved by the fact that when a. few months ago I wrote to it in reference to probationer nurses of the Maternity Hospital attending outside obstetric cases it replied by referring to certain of these by-laws which 1 was informed carried the point. "Coming to the matter of the recent appointment: When I resigned my pc&ition as lecturer to the University it was only fair of me to at once inform the board of the fact, as it is distinctly stated in these by-laws that 'the honorary obstetric physician ehall b- the lecturer on obsotrios to tho University of Orago. In other words, I simply resigned because the by-laws compelled me to do so. Ihere was not the slightest hurry for making any reappointment, as before leaving on my holiday I distinctly wrote the board that I was quite prepared to go on with the work on my return until the University Council was able to make its appointment ; I was therefore somewhat di--gustcd to find that during my absence the members of the board had seized the opportunity to rush the appointment through, altogether irrespective of the _ interests of the University and the Medical School. Last year when I went away for a similar holiday the assistant obstetric physician took charge, and everything went perfectly smoothly ; i<f he had required any assistance there are a number of medical men in the town who would have been only too glad to have rendered him any help or aid he might require. " The" absolute wairt of knowledge of hospital matters possessed by the Charitable Aid Board is really^ dish-rartening; everyone who knows anything about hospitals, maternity or otherwise, knows that the most successful institutions in the world are those hospitals conducted in conjunction with the teaching of medical students, and that the by-law requiring tho lecturer on obstetrics at tho University to be the honorarj obstetric physician of the institution gi\es it a status that it could otherwise never attain ; if they had the remotest conception of medical ma-tters th-ay would recognise this fact. How inunv applications do they think tbey wouid receive for a-n honorary post of this kind or how would such hard, umeinune rative work be likely to bo conducted were it not for its connection with the University ? It is tho same v,-ith the Maiternity Hospital now a< it has \yecn m tho i>a/st with our General Hospital. I do not think our Medical School can e\er hope to be a success in this town until tho University Council is lopresentcd on t/ic Board of Management of th-jse institu tion<s. which provide clinical tcach.ng fcr c- r medical students,, and can have a \oice in the making of the appointments of teachers and lecturers. "I am glad to sec the University Council at length proposes taking action in this matter, and sincerely trust "that the Government will insist on provisions for this representation so essential : it already subsidises the Medical School very largely. It is not merely a local institution, but a na-tional otue, and unless the teaching in this school can be efficiently conducted", instead of b?ing the enormous advantage to the Dominion that it should be it will become a veritable cui-se ; we must so train our students as to ensure the maintenance of a high standard amon? our practitioners. I think a big mistake mad>o by our University has b?cn that before even starting the school ii d.d not insist upon having a reasonable \o ice in the choioe of its teachers. I do not think that when this matter is properly reiuc-

sented any intelligent body of men will ] fail to see the necessity for granting it some suitable supervision. " You may say, in conclusion,"' said the doctor, " that my grievance is certainly not a personal one against the appointee. I have every regard for him personally, but it is the violation of the principle by the board iteolf that I object to. It is extremely disappointing to me after six years of somewhat heavy work in the public interest to find matters in the present position and to find, when the institution is working smoothly and {jetting 1 excellent results, that the main object of one's la-bour is set aside owing to the incapacity of the board to recognise the vital interests involved."