Mary Potter Hospice To Be Opened On Sunday

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27498, 4 November 1954, Page 2

Mary Potter Hospice To Be Opened On Sunday

The Mother Mary Potter Hospice, which will be administered by the Sisters of the Little Company of Mary at Calvary Hospital, Christchurch, will be officially opened on Sunday afternoon by the Governor-General (Sir Willoughby Norrie). The ceremony will be attended by two archbishops and three bishops. These will be the Archbishop of Wellington and metropolitan of New Zealand (the Most Hev. P. T. B McKeefry), who will bless the hospice; Archbishop Liston (Auckland), Bishop Joyce (Christchurch), Bishop Cavanagh (Dunedin), and Bishop Foley (Fiji). The hospice will be the first institution of its kind to be opened in New Zealand, though the Little Company of Mary has similar hospices in Adelaide and Hobart It will enable the completion of the work of the order, which has as one of its principal aims the care of those in an advanced stage of sickness, and the provision of succor for the dying. The hospice, in its name and work, will commemorate the woman who

founded the Little Company of Mary 77 years ago, and who was always greatly concerned with the care of the dying. Mother Mary Potter was born in London, and was the youngest of a family of five children. She founded the order of nursing sisters in Nottingham in 1877. Like many other movements that later became widespread, the order began, very modestly, but the work grew and spread rapidly, and in 1904 the mother house of the order was established in Borne. There Mother Mary Potter died in 1918. In all countries of the Empire at present are to be found hospitals run by the Sisters of the Little Company of Mary, who are often known as The Blue Sisters."

The hospice in Christchurch will accommodate 20 patients of both sexes, who need expert nursing. Admission will be determined by the needs of each individual applicant and all will be treated free. There will be no dis-

tihetion—persons of all colours, creeds, and classes vdU.be received. The building is an outstanding example of .the modern advances that have been made in recent years in planning for the care of the sick and in providing for them artistic and restful surroundings. The Sisters have brought to bear on the planning and equipping of the hospice the knowledge they have gained in their wide nursing experience, and at the same time they have adopted the best of modern methods of planning With the intention of achieving the greatest efficiency in their work and the maximum comfort for their patients. The hospice has 10 single rooms: two wards, each with four beds; and one room with two beds. The floors have a plastic covering to minimise labour: the ceilings are of acoustic tiles; and in the rooms combinations of pastel colours are used on the walls with excellent effect In one room, two walls are of a soft green shade, and two of primrose. In other rooms, blossom pink and ivory, pearl grey and pink, gale blue and lemon are used in nomination.

A kitchen, sterilising rooms, a waiting room, and a small office are provided. There is space for a lift well, in anticipation of the time when another storey will be added to the hospice. At the north-west corner of one wing is a solarium, and wide verandas run the length of the L-shaped buildhospice is centrally heated. I Ramps are provided tor easy access to the building. Steps lead to the baths, placed high to facilitate the bathing of patients. Labour-saving devices are to be found in every department. In a quiet corner at the end of a corridor is a small oratory. The Sisters of the Little Company of Mary have made hosts of friends since their hospital was opened in Bealey avenue by the then Governor-General (Lord Liverpool). 45 years ago, and many of them will attend the opening of the hospice on Sunday.