THE NURSES' GRIEVANCES.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 July 1916, Page 6

THE NURSES' GRIEVANCES.

To the Editor. Sir, —''The house steward lias been instructed to have ropes placed from upstairs windows in the nurses' home so as to overcome any danger arising from insufficient fire escape, and . to have walls round califont lined with asbestos.'' The above is a portion of the report of a sub-committee presented to the Hospital Board at their last meeting, and is of itself enough justification for the late revolt of the nurses and your able article. Is it not a striking commentary on the conduct and care of (he Board, whose chairman is also superintendent of the Fire Brigade, that it should be necessary for the stall' to call attention to this danger before anything was done? It is certainly one duty of the Board, and a most important one, to keep' the expenses down in the interests of the ratepayers, but this should not be done at the cost, of the nurses, and the wonder* is not that they lytve complained now, but that they did nol, do so long ago. What can "lie more unfair or unreasonable than the state of afi'airs spoken of by Dr. I.eatham, that a nurse on isolation duty, practically lockrd up for three weeks or more at a time, should be compelled to eat her meals in the scullery? This has been the case for months past. Would the chairman or any other member of the Board have allowed this if his own daughter had been on the staff? Is it not an extraordinary tiling that in a new hospital just opened so many faults of arrangement should already be discovered which should have been noticed and altered while the plans were under consideration? Take, for instance, the lighting arrangements in the wards. These rooms are long, narrow ones, and tbe beds are ranged on each side facing towards the centre. They are lighted bv a row of lights running down the centre, so tiiat every patient in bed has the light shining full in his eyes, while if lie wants to read, his book is in the shadow, and when a nurse comes to the hod to do anything for him, she has to stand in her own light. A little thought would have placed the light oirthe wall at the back of the patient, when his eyes would ha v c been in the shadow, his book ill the light, and when ne wanted to sloop it could be switched out. Then look at their arrangements for the furnishing! The building was practically, if not actually, finished for a year before ever the specifications for these requirements were got out. During this time the cost of all articles was steadily mounting. When at last the Board did find out what they wanted they called for tenders and gave the tenderers less than two weeks ill which to get their tenders out. and wanted the wliole delivered in less than three months. This, of course, absolutely precluded the importation of any goods from Home: consequently the whole which was not of local manufacture or in local stocks, had to be procured from the big warehousemen in the Dominion, very much, of course, to their benefit, but of little benefit to the tenderer, and very much to the cost of the ratepayer. While on this matter, perhaps the chairman will either explain or contradict the statement that he personally gave the order for the wliole of the blankets (with the exception of a few grey ones), over '2OO pairs, to one firm without any opportunity being given to any other firm in the town to put in a price at all. This is in direct contravention of the Act, which prohibits any public body giving orders for over a specified amount (I think £2U) without calling publicly for tenders. This statement has been freely circulated, and it is only fair to the chairman that he should bave an opportunity of denying it if it is untrue. There are still other matters I want to touch Oil. but this must suffice for the present.—l am, etc., VIATOR. Interviewed by a representative of Hie News, the chairman of the Hospital Board stated that lie did give the order for the blankets to one firm, his action afterwards being confirmed by the Board. By doing so, ho claimed, he saved the ratepayers a considerable sum. He received a quote, for the blankets from the linn in question, who had obtained it from a wholesale firm doing business in Xew Plymouth. Before accepting it, he counselled the managers of two of the local wholesale houses, and was assured that he could not do better than accept the ofi'er; in fact, one of them doubted whether they could be supplied at the price quoted. One of the warehousemen stated that the local firm who supplied the blankets could have made from 20 to IST J per cent by holding them themselves.