NEW MATERNITY HOSPITAL

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22245, 9 November 1937, Page 12

NEW MATERNITY HOSPITAL

BETTER PROVISION AT DUNEDIN MINISTER REPEATS EARLY RECORDS (PRESS ASSOCXATIOS TELEGRAM.) DUNEDIN. November 8. The Queen Mary Maternity Hospital, erected to meet the increasing need in the sphere of maternal welfare m Otago by means of State aid, a handsome gift from the Dunedin Savings Bank and generous private bequests, was officially opened to-day by the Minister for Health (the Hon. P. Fraser), There was a big attendance, representative of local bodies, the medical and nursing professions, and the general public. Mr Fraser said they were celebrating an important occasion in the life of the community and he offered congratulations to the organisers of the plan to build such a hospital, and also to those who had so ably carried it out. The earliest official reference to the provision of a public maternity service in New Zealand, the Minister said, appeared in the first annual report of Dr. George Wallington-Graham. Appointed Inspector of Hospitals in 1882, hi his report dated January 29, 1883, he mentioned that “a small wooden annexe on the north side of the Dunedin hospital contains a lying-in department which consists of two wards, a small kitchen, and a room for a midwife and. as one might well expect, he found also “that a careful system of bookkeeping is in use at this hospital, all supplies being carefully checked. There can be no doubt that this hospital is under good and able management. Thus it would appear that to the Dunedin Hospital authorities belonged th% signal honour of providing the first public maternity service in New Zealand. . _ After the opening of the Dunedin St. Helens Hospital in 1905 by the Government. a further step was taken in 1007 when the Batchelor Hospital was established. This was the first public maternity hospital to be provided by a Hospital Board and to Dr. F. C. Batchelor must be given much of the credit for this advance. Dunedin could, therefore, claim to have shown great vision so characteristic of that branch of the British race which founded the city. ' Now. 55 years after the establishment of the first lying-in ward, they were assembled to open a modern welleaUipped maternity' hospital of 26 beds with a resident medical officer, to replace the St. Helens and Batchelor hospitals. Mr Fraser said.