SUPPLY FROM ENGLAND

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 461, 1 July 1937, Page 3

SUPPLY FROM ENGLAND

TRAINED NURSES Dominion Shortage I Tokomaru Bay, June 29. The Waiapu Hospital Board has .found the shortage of trained mirses so acute that the June meeting seriously decided 1 to explore the possibility of paying their passages from England on three-year contracts. The medical superintendent, Dr. E. C. Grant, drew attention to the Col-" onial Medical Service, through which nurses were sent from England to South Africa and other colonies. The thought wage expressed that j payment of the passage money of i two or three* nurses together with salaries of £l3O per annum each would be cheaper in the long- run than paying £’4/4/0 .a. week to a succession of temporary appointees. It was c-tated that in sgite of advertisements throughout the country the board was absolutely unable to secure a full permanent staff. Dr. Grant stated that £l3O per annum in New Zealand would compare with the £95 sterling which nurses could command in England. Concern was. expressed at the application of the 40-hour week to rural institutions like Te Puia Hospital, necessitating staff expenditure increases. Lack of a permanent staff, it was pointed out, would make overtime most costly than in urban areas. The secretary, Mr. J. Todd, however, stated that the board’s greatest problem w r ould not be salaries, but accommodation. Although a new nurses’ home had only recently been completed it looked as if with a staff increase on decreased hours the board would have to face building agairi. Q It was suggested that the shortage of nurses was partly due to 200 having gone to England for the Coronation. Dr. Grant thought that a number of these might stay l in England and secure w’ork there. The secretary waj? instructed tto write to the Health Department for information as to the possibility of importing nurses.