BENEFITS FOR NURSE&

Taranaki Daily News, 15 March 1922, Page 5

BENEFITS FOR NURSE&

A SUPERANNUATION SCHEME. PROPOSALS NEXT SESSION. The question of superannuation for nurses was briefly touched on by the Minister for Health (Hon. C-. J. Parr) at the opening of the nurses’ home at New Plymouth yesterday. The Minister said it would be his policy to make suitable provision for those engaged in the profession of nursing and he would like to see a superannuation fund for them throughout the whole of New Zealand. He hoped to introduce legislation next session by which the provisions of the Government Provident Insurance Fund would be extended to the nurses. Too much could not be done for those upon whose shoulders rested the principal responsibility of the care of the sick in the hospitals. The question of superannuation was also before the meeting of the Stratford Hospital Board yesterday. The Health Department wrote asking for data Sn regard to the proposed scheme of hospital employees’ superannuation. The chair man said the Government had not yet brought up a definite scheme and every* thing was as yet in the air. The Government had not the money to go on with the scheme and it wa£ a waste of time to discuss the matter. /The board had already approved the principle of the scheme. Mr. O’Neill put forward a strong plea for some scheme of superannuation. He said that it sometimes happened that a nurse was in the employ of a hospital for a number of years, when, owing to the stress of the work, her health broke down as the result of her hospital service. Such a nurse received no compensation whatever. It was agreed that a nurse’s duties were more arduous than those of most women and that the remuneration was extremely low. Mr. Thomson said the nurses’ salaries were so low that it would be hardly possible to make any reductions for superannuation, but at the same time he thought some scheme should be instituted. The matter WM then dropped, approval of the schema having been forwarded to the department.