MOTHERHOOD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 165, 15 July 1938, Page 13

MOTHERHOOD.

HOSPITAL CARE.

DOMINION'S PROBLEM.

COMMITTEE PROPOSALS. SHORTAGE OP NURSES. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. Recognising that the report of the maternity committee was of great value, members of the Rouse of Representatives who discussed it yesterday were only critical to the extent that the recently gazetted regulations regarding nurees' hours might make things too difficult for private maternity hospitals to continue complete service. It was explained by Mr. J. Hargest (National, Awarua) that the great shortage of nurees in New Zealand was exemplified by the experiences of licensees in four maternity homes at Invercargill. who advertised and asked the Health Department to assist them in securing fresh nurses in view of the requirements of the regulations. They had not been able to secure one answer. St. Helen's hospitals were training 60 nurses annually, but he regarded this number as insufficient. It seemed strange that the concern of the Government was always for those working for wages and salary, and not to encourage those in fc enterprises of their own.

The Minister of Health, Mr. Fraser, suggested in his reply that members should preserve a sense of proportion in relation to the subject dealt with by the committee, which had made such a painstaking, conscientious and scientific examination into the problem of maternity mortality. He believed that individual .nurses who embarked on hospital service made very little out of it, and the committee, which had carefully inquired into the service provided by private maternity hospitals, considered that they were generally good, so much so that its recommendation, which be believed would be embodied into the social security legislation of the Government, was that those hospitals should be paid directly from the social security funds so far as maternity benefit was concerned. More Assured Income.

"I am hopeful," continued the Minister, "when that legislation becomes law that the income of those hospitals be more assured than it has been because they are rendering valuable service, and I should be sorry if any regulations stultified their work in any way. Mr. Hargest: There have been' manv complaints recently.

The Minister: No, not many complaints, but a certain amount of natural alarm because nurses are scarce. At the moment there is a temporary shortage, not a great one, accounted for bv a larger number employed in our hospitals owing to the reduction of hours, and a particularly large number of nurses who went away to Britain temporarily during Coronation year. I believe that, owing to more prosperous conditions, what has happened among teachers has happened among nurses that more of them are able to marry. Do the critics object to nurses' hours being reduced to a reasonable number? Mr. Hardest: You must give hospitals time to adjust the position.

Mr. Fraser replied that he agreed, and he could assure the House that the regulations had a good deal of elasticity about them. The regulations were •brought in .not for thoughtful, considerate employers, but for those who paid little attention to the abnormally long hours which nurses were called upon to work. There were a number of instances where hours were so lon«* that the nurses health had been under" mined He was not prepared to admit that all representations were voluntary ones. He received similar ones from ail j parts of the country, and w-hen he saw this he considered that they needed ,close examination. He would not reject [them, but would make close inquiries into the position, including that of Invercargill, and if it could be shown to the satisfaction of the Health Departments officers, Including the head of the nursing service, that there was danger on September 1 of mothers of Invercararill being neglected, then steps would be taken to obviate this.

"Nurses Would Not Wish It." The Minister considered it would be a simple matter to adjust the regulations to meet requirements. While [he was anxious to improve the lot of nurses, it would be ridiculous—and the nurses themselves would, not wish it— that ae the result of a shortage mothers should be neglected or be forced to be treated in their own homes rather than in well-equipped maternity hospitals. When it was a case of necessity mothers and babies must receive first consideration.

Discussing the more general aspect of the question, Mr. Fraser remarked that it wa* satisfactory to find that after ) being seriously low New Zealand's birth rate was once more on the up grade. . Last year births totalled 26,104, .equal to 17.29 per thousand of population, the highest figure since 1931. New Zealand aleo maintained its proud position .of having the lowest infantile mortality in the world—32 per 1000 births, compared with the next . lowest, namely, Australia, with 41 per 1000 births. Although there had bepn criticism of the Plunket Society, Mr. Fraser said, he must pay a tribute for its splendid position to the work of the late Sir Truby King and to this organisation, which was always prepared to keep abreast of scientific discovery on the of infant nutrition. This subject was receiving consideration by the Plunket Society's advisory council, also by the medical research council, and he had no fear of the future of the Plunket Society.

The Minister added that New Zealand's maternal mortality was slowly declining, ami at present he was pleased to say that taking all deaths from puerperal fever it was 3.51 per 1000 live births. If deaths from eeptie abortion were excluded the rate came down to 2.69 V a record low rate. Thie reflected great credit on the maternity service of St. Helens hospitals and pri» vate maternity hospitals. Consideration was being given to possible legal enactments in line with the committee's report, and he was hepeful of getting some legislation insofar -as this problem could be dealt with in that way.

"But we can only deal with it completely and ' effectively," added the Minieter, "by the moral' and spiritual outlook of the people. Whatever legal enactments are made can only make it harder to offend, and we will do whatever we can, but the question of abortion, and sex morality generally is fundamentally based, not on legal enactment, but on moral and spiritual forces and a generally high and decent outlook on life."