RECRUITING OF NURSES

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25549, 17 July 1948, Page 2

RECRUITING OF NURSES

STATEMENT BY MISS HOWARD “NOT HANDICAPPED BY INADEQUATE PAY” (From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, July 16. The statement of Mrs G. H. Ross (Opposition, Hamilton) that the recruiting of nurses was being handicapped by inadequate salaries, was incorrect, said the Minister of Health (Miss M. B. Howard), in the House of Representatives to-day. Salaries, as recently fixed after full investigation, had granted all that nurses asked for, and what more could a Government do than that? Mrs Ross had said cocks were paid more than hospital sisters, but that comparison was no more valuable than a comparison between salaries of nurses and any other hospital workers. Miss Howard said she would welcome the fullest inquiry by Mrs Ross into the present salaries and employment conditions of hospital nurses. Mr J. K. McAlpine (Opposition, Selwyn): Then sisters do get more than cooks. • Miss Howard: I have never bothered to find out. It doesn’t come into .tbo. question. The Minister said many nurses had written to praise the present salary scales, which were such that they definitely did not hamper the recruitment of nurses. Miss Howard said that one reason why it was difficult to place aged persons in homes was that hospital boards in the past had not co-operated. Now there was a stabilised State subsidy. and boards did not have to pay for the inmates of such homes. They were anxious to establish homes. She agreed that more such homes were needed, but they could not be built immediately. Existing homes had, however, been cleaned up and brightened.