ST. HELENS.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19940, 29 May 1930, Page 6

ST. HELENS.

QUESTION OF CONTROL.

NEW BUILDING TO BE ERECTED.

The strong committee Of ladies which is pressing for a new St. Helens Hospital in Cliristehurch do not want it to lose its identity by being built near the E.ssex Home, but on a site already owned by tho Health Department iu Church square, Addington. They also wish it to continue tinder the control ot the Government, not under tho Hospital Board, as was arranged in an agreement between the Board and the Department in 1925. They came in a strong deputation to the Hospital Board yesterday, stating that they were approaching' the Hon. A. J- Stall worthy on Saturday, and asking the Board not to press the agreement, and thus allow the State to continue in eontrol. This the Hospital Board agreed to do. Present Hospital. Mrs \V\ S. Bean, the first- speaker, said they would all realise the necessity for rebuilding St. Helens. These hospitals had been founded in the chief centres twenty-four or twenty-flvo years ago as almost national institutions. An oid pubiichouse in Sydenham which had been closed had been taken over, and made into the present St. Helens, with the accommodation of about fifteen beds. A site of half an acre fronting Church square, Addington, had been purchased by the Health Department, and threequarters of an acre had been added when Sir K. Heaton Bhodes was Minister. The war came and then the project had drifted, and had been lost sight of. What they wanted to know was why the new building had not been proceeded with. She had heard that an arrangement had been made between the Board and the Health Department for the Board, with the help of a subsidy up to £2OOO a year, to eontrol the hospital if the Government bore the cost of building it.

No Reflection on Board. "What we want you to do," suggested Mrs Bean, "is to say that this Board will raise no objection to the State continuing to control the new St. Helens when it is built. In asking this we are not making the slightest reflection on the ability of the Board, but we know you are already heavily laden with institutions under your conUol. We arc putting all our cards on the table. St. Helens has done magnificent work in Christchurch, and we want to give it the chance to do even greater. A deputation representing ever two thousand women, with tho support of all the women's organisations in Christchurch we can think of behind it is meeting the Minister for Health (the Hon. A. J. Stallworthy) on Saturday morning, to ask that St. Helens be rebuilt, not on the site near tho Essex Home, as is suggested, but on the site we have available in Church square, Addington. "We want your help. The way you can give it is by saying that you are willing to waive the agreemeut, and to let the Government Carry on in control of St. Helens, as is done rn the other centres.

The chairman (Mr 11. J. Otley): As far as the Board is concerned, we are not very particular about the control, but there is the. question of the agreement we entered into.

Keeping Its Identity. Mrs Cracioft Wilson, the other speaker of the deputation, said she would be sorry to see the new St. Helens built adjacent to the Essex Home or its control pass into the hands of the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board. It was not a charitable instition by any means; it had not been established as one, nor had it rcveloped into one. It was not desirable to run the two homes in conjunction with each other. Essex Home was associated with rescue work. They all .knew what a great work Richard Scddon had done for hospitals. Mrs Bean was his daughter. Mr Otley suggested it mignt have been better for their cause If they had gone straight to the Minister instead of coming to the Board at all. In 1025 the Board had made an arrangement with the Health Department to take over St. Helens, and it Was not fair to ask the Board to go to the Department now, and say that they repudiated that arrangement. We had not the slightest objection if the Department decided to let it lapse. He explained that the proposal of 1925 had been for the State to erect the new St. Helens Hospital in the grounds of the Essex Home, and then hand it over to the Board to administer, receiving a subsidy Up to £2OOO, from the State. Mr L. B. Evans: Would it be acceptable to you if this Board passed a resolution agreeing not to place any objection in your way in your request to trie Minister? Mrs Bean: That wouM be very satisfactory to us. View's of Members. After the deputation had withdrawn, Dr. P. Stanley Foster said that the Board would be as well off without St, Helens, and if they offered no objection to the State taking it over, this would be a graceful way of getting out of it. It was feared by Mrs J. McCornbß that if they took charge of St. Helens it would become a charge on the rates. Sho held that the Government should not be relieved of the burden of public health at the expense of the ratepayers. On the other hand sho felt that the hospital would be more sympathetically administered by the Board than by the State. The Board did look after its nurses, but the nurses' quarters at St. Helens were not a credit to it.

The Board eventually agreed that it would not press for its arrangement with the Health Department to be given effect to.