HOSPITAL BOARD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 47, 17 August 1911, Page 3

HOSPITAL BOARD.

- MONTHLY MEETING. i The. monthly meeting of the Tarai naki Hospital and Charitable Aid I Board was held at New Plymouth yesterday. Present: 'Messrs F. C. J. Bellringer (chairman), Geo. Brown, \V. Cutfield, E. Maxwell, M. J. Macßeynolds, J. K. Hill, J. Brown, G. V. Tate, C. O'Sullivan, and D. H. McDonald. MEDICAL REPORT. Mr. D. S. Wylie. F.R.C.S., actingmedical superintendent, reported that during the month of duly the number of patients admitted had been 45, discharged '27, eight had died, and 41! remained in the hospital. There had been 17 operations. The number of patients admitted was the largest for any one month since August, I!)<K5. The wards, both male and female, had been overcrowded, and the work carried on under conditions the reverse of pleasant. The nursing stall' had been very heavily worked for the whole of the last month, so much so that two of their number had been on the sick list. The urgent necessity for the erection of new buildings was never more apparent that at the present time. OLD PEOPLE'S HOME. Mrs. Bayly, manageress of the Old People's Home, reported for the month that everything at the Home had been very satisfactory, and the discipline had been excellent. There had • been six admissions during the month, four males and two females. One inmate had left. There were now in the Home 29 males and seven women.—An application by the assistant for increase of salary was left to the chairman to arrange. THE NURSING STAFF. Dr. Wylie reported that Miss Tolme. on the nursing staff, had now passed her examination, and he recommended that her staff-nurse remuneration be paid as from February last. ) The chairman explained that Nurse Tolme was unable, owing to having contracted typhoid fever in the institution, to sit for her examination in December, and it was though fair that she should be paid as though she had passed then. In answer to a question by Mr. Brown, the secretary said the nursing staff numbered twenty. There were the matron, assistant-matron, four staff nurses, nine second-year probationers, and five firstyear probationers. The chairman added that public hospitals had a greater number of nurses than private hospitals had. The average in the latter was a nurse to seven patients, and in public hospitals one to three patients. Mr. Brown: And we have 4G patients. That's not one to three patients. The secretary: But our nurses have to attend to the consumptive annexe, and to isolation work: and, besides, the | New Plymouth Hospital Was not one of the most convenient hospitals to work. The recommendation was adopted.