AN URGENT NEED

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 58, 9 March 1944, Page 6

AN URGENT NEED

EXTRA ASSISTANCE

AUCKLAND HOSPITAL NURSES

"A wrong impression may have been created in the public mind concerning the staffing situation at the Auckland Hospital, by reason of the condensation of evidence in an appeal case report published yesterday," said Mr. Allan J. Moody, chairman of the Hospital Board, to-day.

"The actual position is that, although at the moment the hospital has just sufficient ward sisters, in all other respects there is an urgent call for additional essential staffing," continued Mr. Moody. "The board has asked for a total of 167 additional staff. We require nurses, probationer nurses, nursing aids, ward maids, orderlies and kitchen hands—practically every type of professional and skilled employee engaged in the hospital."

A wrong impression might have been created, he said, because the Industrial Manpower Committee chairman had asked the lady superintendent a leading question concerning nursing sisters, and her reply had been that the position was satisfactory, but her statement should not be read as meaning that the staffing as a whole was satisfactory. Actually, the need of extra assistance was most urgent.