NO NURSE IN AMBULANCE

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29992, 29 November 1962, Page 19

NO NURSE IN AMBULANCE

Position To Be Clarified The failure of the Christchurch sub-centre of the St. John Ambulance Associatian to provide nurses on some ambulances carrying country people to city hospitals is to be taken up with the subcentre by the North Canterbury Hospital Board. Mr V. J. Corbett told the board the custom was that when the ambulances from Culverden, Cheviot, and Kaikoura had severely ill patients for city hospitals, they would be met half-way by ambulances from Christchurch. These city ambulances often did not carry a nurse, even when this had been particularly requested, the country sub-centres being told that none was available. Drivers could not always tell how their patients were getting on, as some patients were not able to give a coherent reply over the communication pipe; and the consequences of delay while the driver got out and attended to a patient could well be imagined. Mrs R. M. Macfarlane suggested that, if tiie sub-centre were unable to get sufficient voluntary nurses to maintain the service, the board should investigate the possibility of providing supplementary help. The board’s representative on the Christchurch subcentre (Mr L. A. Bennett) undertook to bring up the question at its next meeting.