WAIHI HOSPITAL AFFAIRS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22370, 6 April 1938, Page 10

WAIHI HOSPITAL AFFAIRS

LIBEL AND SLANDER ACTION FORMER MATRON SUES SUPERINTENDENT CASE FOR THE PLAINTIFF CONCLUDED (PRESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) AUCKLAND, April 5. The hearing of a claim for £475 for alleged libel and slander, brought against Dr. Archibald Jenkins, Medical Superintendent of the Waihi Hospital, by Mrs Isabella Jane Paddock, formerly matron of the hospital, was continued before Mr Justice Fair in the Supreme Court. Mr Fitzherfaert is appearing for the plaintiff and Mr Newbery for the defendant. Plaintiff alleged that in July last defendant wrote or spoke falsely and maliciously of her to members of the Waihi Hospital Board and others, stating that in various respects she was unable properly to undertake the management and discipline of the institution. It was alleged that he had complained that she had prepared a highly poisonous medicine for a patient’s eye, far in excess of the strength ordered. Plaintiff claimed that the words used were false, and as a result she had suffered in health and professional reputation, and had received three months’ notice of dismissal from the hospital. The defendant made a general denial, and claimed that if the words complained of were used, they were privileged, and used without malice, and in belief that they were true.

Fred Raddings. a member of the Waihi Hospital Board up to the time of its amalgamation with the Thames Board, said ho remembered Dr. Jenkins bringing two hospital sisters to a surf club ball last June about 10 or 10.30 p.m. They were the only two sisters in hospital at the time. The matron was also at the ball, and the sisters were there before the matron left. Witness said ho remembered one meeting of the board in March, 1937, at which Dr. Jenkins told the board he was perfectly satisfied with the way in which the matron and staff were conducting the hospital, and the board carried a vote of thanks to them. It was in July. 1937, that Dr. Jenkins made complaipts against the matron. “Caused Trouble” “The doctor caused a terrible lot of trouble,” said the witness. “He ignored the matron, and said he was doing so.” In answer to Mr Newbcry, witness said that he. Robinson, and McDermott generally saw eye to eye, and voted x-gainst other members of the board. He could not say that there was no trained staff left at the hospital on the night of the Surf Club ball. Asked if he thought those who voted for the matron’s resignation acted fairly and honestly, witness replied: “Two of them are the biggest twisters that ever sat on a hospital board. Their sole reason for altering their decision was never shown to the board and never will be shown.” Mr Newbery: You don’t suggest that they had any personal feeling against the matron? —Yes. I do. Plaintiff, continuing her evidence from the previous day. said that none of the trained staff had ever loft because of anything she did. She recalled an occasion on which Edith Black, in the presence of Sister Smith and Dr. Jenkins, said to witness: “I did call you a fool, and I meant it.” Witness suspended Sister Black, and next day Sister Black wrote her a letter of apology. Witness produced her record book of prescriptions, which she said showed that when she made up certain alrophine'drops on July 9 she did not know for whom they were intended. Dr. Jenkins later complained about this prescription. A committee of two was sot up by the board to inquire into the charges Dr. Jenkins had brought against her. She tendered her resignation. she said, “as it had become a matter of expediency rather than of justice.’’ Four members later came to congratulate her, and tell her that her resignation had not been accepted.

In cross-examination witness said the Owaka Hospital was the last one she had been in charge of before Waihi. She had the knowledge and experience necessary for theatre work. She would not deny that eight of the staff left in June and four more in July. Mr Newbery: Did you dismiss any of the staff while you were there? Witness: Only one cook. “False Charges’* Witness said the secretary of the board had told her it would be better for her not to come over to the office so often. ' It was untrue to say that she had soiled Sister Edith Black’s hands at arf operation. There were two nurses on call on the night of the Surf Club ball. She had said all along that the doctor had told her to make up a 4 per cent, solution of atrophine. What she made up was one-quarter per cent. She knew that 4 per cent, was dangerous if used in the eye;* but she did not know what this was to be used for. Dr. Jenkins’s charges were without foundation, absolutely false, and made with the object of getting her out of her position. Mr Newbery: Do you say he is telling deliberate falsehoods?— Yes.

The assistant-secretary to the former Waihi Hospital Board, Georgine Broadfoot, said that on the night of the Surf Club ball two nurses persuaded the matron to go while they stayed on duty. Later, witness saw these two nurses enter the ball, immediately behind Dr. Jenkins.

A member of the Waihi Hospital Board, James L. McDermott, said he did not know of any of the trained staff leaving on account of the matron. Before Dr. Jenkins made his charges there was no reason to believe that the hospital was not being properly run. Dr, Jenkins took a vindictive attitude against the matron. Alfred Ernest Robinson, former chairman of the Waihi Hospital Board, said there had been no complaints of any kind against the matron before Dr. Jenkins’s complaints of July 13 He considered that the analyst’s report showed that the matron had prepared the atrophine according to the doctor’s instructions. At one stage he considered that the Sisters Black were running the hospital. Mr Fitzherbert closed his- case, and the defence will open to-morrow.