NEED FOR HELP IN HOME

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28929, 24 June 1959, Page 16

NEED FOR HELP IN HOME

Assistance For < ( Mothers Urged (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, June 23. j The Grey Hospital Board in written submissions to the consultative committee on infant and pre-school health services today said the Plunket Society should change the nature of much of its work and should co-operate more with family doctors. In the 50 years since the Plunket Society was formed, there had been big changes in the knowledge and outlook of I parents, standards of hygiene in the home and generally in the social structure, the board submitted. ‘‘The present Karitane nurse should be replaced, in general, by young women whose primary purpose is to care for the older ■ children in the home and to assist ' with the general running of the i household.” It was wrong, in principle, for the care of a new baby to be : i handed over to a person other ! I than the mother. • Th? board thought Karitane ' hospitals should be run by hos--1 pital boards as neo-natal or pediatric institutions staffed by ' nurses with some training in prenatal care. It could not see anv ‘ advantage in a hospital board taking over the running of the present Plunket Society clinics, j but there definitely should be a , closer working arrangement with family doctors. Ping” meehof the