MASTERTON HOSPITAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 August 1938, Page 8

MASTERTON HOSPITAL

RESIGNATION OF MATRON. APPRECIATION OF VALUABLE SERVICE.' The resignation of the Matron of the Masterton Hospital, Miss K. I. Barnitt, was accepted with regret at yesterday’s meeting of the Wairarapa Hospital Board. The resignation will take effect from November 1. Tributes were paid to the valuable service given by Miss Barnitt during her years of service. The chairman, Mr H. H. Mawley, said Miss Barnitt, had enjoyed a very good career and also a most strenuous one with the Expeditionary Forces. She had seen the Masterton Hospital grow from about 50 occupied beds to the present 153 occupied beds. He moved that the resignation be accepted with regret and that appreciation of Miss Barnitt’s services be placed on record. Mr J. F. Thompson and other members referred to the splendid work of the Matron in the interests of the board and the patients. The resignation was accepted and Miss Barnitt is to be given three months’ ’leave of absence on full pay as from November 1. CAREER OF MATRON.

Miss Barnitt commenced training as a nurse at the New Plymouth Hospital in 1906. In April of 1915 she enlisted from the New Plymouth Hospital in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force and sailed from the Dominion on April 8, 1915. She was demobilised in London in September of 1919 for a special educational course arranged by the Department of Health, New Zealand In September of 1920 she was posted for duty to return to New . Zealand with invalid officers and ultimately terminated her service and leave in November, 1920. In 1922, Miss Barnitf commenced duty as a relieving sister at the New Plymouth Hospital and in June of the same year, she commenced duty as relieving Matron at the same hospital and terminated that duty in November, 1922. She was appointed Matron of the Masterton Hospital on January 1, 1924 and has held the position ever since.