FULL HOSPITALS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 84, 9 April 1940, Page 9

FULL HOSPITALS.

MATERNITY CASES.

BOOKED FOR SEVEN MONTHS.

SOCIAL SECURITY EFFECT.

All accommodation in practically every private maternity nursing home in Auckland is booked for the next

seven months, according to inquiries made to-day. In some of the homes all accommodation is reserved until the end of the year, proprietors stating that the position is unprecedented. Manv prospective mothers have been unable to make arrangements, and there is a prospect of the old-fashioned practice of confinements taking place in private homes.

The matron of one of the largest maternity homes in the city stated that it had Ivoen necessary to refuse bookings until after December. Principal reason given for the sudden rush was the assistance from the social security fund available to mothers, while the influence of the war was also evident.

"Many of the young prospective mothers who have come to me are having their first baby, and some of them eay that their husbands are awav w *t-h the. Fiir-t Echelon or will be leaving with the Second Kchelon/' said the matron. The war was also thought to have given an impetus to the birth rate in families which might otherwise be childless.

All Beds Occupied. Another matron stated that licr hospital was overcrowded and there were bookings as far ahead as Xovember. She claimed that she had been endeavouring to make arrangemejits for the addition of another four rooms to her premises, but that the plans had been held up by town-planning restrictions. Ihe story in the other hospitals communicated with was the same. All beds were occupied and no arrangements could be made for the accommodation of further patients for at least six months.

An exception was a hospital which was stated to be the only maternity home in the North Inland which was not under the partial social security schema. In this case patients were required to pay the total fees, but while the bookings were not so heavy as in other institutions there was little iicoomnioda t ion ava ila ble.

In another quarter it was stated that tho rush to book in maternity homes was due to the fact that it was now possible under social security to have a confinement for about £5. The charges in the homes varied from six guineas to eight guineas weekly, but the allowances from the fund materially bridged the pap. Thus people who would formerly have pone to a cheapor home, or had the confinement in their own homes, were now seeking the best facilities available.

When asked what would be the position of prospective mothers who were unable to obtain access to maternity homes owing to the full bookings, a representative of the nursing profession stated that they would have to make arrangement* in their own homes, as many had done in pre-sociai security days. An obstacle to this, however, was tho shortage of maternity nurses and mid wives.

St. Helens Bookings. The procedure at the Governmentcontrolled. St. Helens maternity hospital is different, and it was stated this morning that bookings were taken onlv two months ahead. While there was a constant demand for accommodation it was stated that where applications were made every effort would be made to accommodate the patients who attended at the clinic.

The Auckland Hospital docs not cater in a large way for maternity cases, and tho accommodation is small. Beds are not booked as in private hospitals, the only eases taken being those admitted from other hospitals where there are complications or abnormalities.