MATERNITY SERVICE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 210, 6 September 1939, Page 13

MATERNITY SERVICE.

PRESENT POSITION.

ONE BED TO aooo PEOPLE.

After pointing out the fundamental need of looking after future mothers, particularly in view of the outbreak of wair, Mrs. A. M. Hutchinson, one of the members of the Government Maternity Services Commission, briefly outlined the past and present extent of maternity services in Auckland. The address was given to the United Women's Association yesterday, the president, Mrs. E. E. Armitage, presiding.

Mrs. Hutchinson compared the number of maternity beds in both public and private hospitals in Auckland with those of other hospital board areas in the Dominion and stated that there - was only one bed to about every 2000 of the population in the Auckland Hospital Board area. The promise o'f the Government to build, when possible, a new St. Helens Hospital of 50 to 60 beds in Auckland, would, when carried out, cater well for the metropolitan area. There were still, however, the rural and suburban areas to be considered, and in this respect the Maternity Services Commission had recommended the establishment of four subsidiary hospitals at North Shore, Henderson, Otahuhu and Onehunga. Slight improvements in the position had already been made at Xortii Shore and Otahuhu, said Mrs. Hutchinson.

With regard to the provisions of the Social Security Act for maternity services, Mrs. Hutchinson stated that doctors and nurses received an absolute guarantee of payment with the least possible trouble. There appeared, added Mrs. Hutchinson, to be some misconception among women as to what information )they were required to give on various forms handed to them for filling in. One form, she said, was a certificate of the engagement of a doctor for maternity care, another was the doctor's claim for payment and fairly similar forms were used for hospital maternity service and obstetrical nursing service. In case, she said, was the woman asked to reveal any personal or embarrassing information.

Following the address songs were given by Mrs. Gordon Nicholson, Mrs. Rees Davies and Madame Yeta Cornwall, for whom Mrs. Harker White played the accompaniments.