Vice-Regal Visit To City Hospital

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30445, 20 May 1964, Page 7

Vice-Regal Visit To City Hospital

The secret of keeping a monode in place is “partly suction, partly saliva,” the Governor-General (Sir Bernard Fergusson) told Dr. Noeline Walker, a patient in the Princess Margaret Hospital, yesterday morning. Dr. Walker, at the Governor’s invitatibn, had tried on the monocle but had’ not succeeded in retaining-it She declined his suggestion to “spit on it” “I didn’t want to risk breaking it” she explained afterwards. Sir Bernard Fergusson had no such trouble with Dr. Walker’s spectacles. The starting-point of the incident was when she told the Governor-General she had attended the Otago, Medical School. Sir Bernard Fergusson asked' if she had been under the late Sir Lindo Ferguson, but he was “before her time?’ she said. The Gover-nor-General then mentioned that Sir Lindo Ferguson’s grandson, another Lindo Ferguson, was an eye-specialist in Auckland, whereupon Dr. Walker asked if he were Sir Bernard Fergusson’s “ocular prescriber.” Hence the exchange of equipment: Dr. Walker is a psychiatric registrar, with the department of psychological medicine, Christchurch Hospital. Informal The incident was,typical of the Goverhor-General’s ap-. proach in his tour of the hospital—his first consideration was to put patients at ease, and formality was at a minimum. Mrs H. I. Mee, an 82-year-old patient in Ward 84, told Sir Bernard Fergusson of her contacts with the late Mrs C. N. Orbell of The Levels Estate, Timaru. Mrs Orbell, born Georgina Fergusson, was a close relative of the Gover-nor-General. “She was a wonderful friend; in fact, she was just like a -mother to me when I first went to The Levels as a young married woman in 1904,” Mrs Mee told him.

A patient in Ward A 4 said he came from Newton Abbot, and had been in New Zealand 50 years. “Are you settling down all right?” the Gover-nor-General inquired. Cigarette Problem

In the radiology department processing room, Sir Bernard Fergusson was shown some X-ray photographs of patients who were to be operated on later in the day. He was looking at some chest X-ray pictures when, indicating a retired surgeon, he said: “I see he’s snioking a pipe. Why shouldn’t I have a cigarette at my own risk?” and, after

offering them without a taker, he lit up.

Soon afterwards he told a pipe-smoking patient, “Pye just beeh having cigarettes with the doctors. None of them smoked and it made me feel' terribly dry.” He asked the patient how he found his pipe; “It’s the best friend I’ve got,” he was told. “I tried a pipe several times, but couldn’t get use to it,” the Governor-General said.

While Sir Bernard Fergusson toured the wards on floors one and four, Lady Fergusson visited those on floors two and three. Sir Bernard Fergusson also saw the Medical Unit, on floor three. He had morning tea with the hospital general staff in their cafeteria, while Lady Fergusson was entertained by the nurses.

On arrival, the Vice-Regal party was met by the chairman of the North Canterbury Hospital Board (Dr. L. C. L. Averill), who introduced to their Excellencies Mr D. Macmillan, chairman of the Princess Margaret Hospital subsidiary committee of the board: Dr. L. , McH. Berry, medical superintendent-in-chief; Mrs M. Chambers, matron-in-chief; Mr J. G. Laurenson, secretary; Dr. R. C. S. Dick, medical superintendent'of the hospital; Miss J. Barnett, matron; Mr T. M. McGuigan, senior administrative officer; and several departmental staff members.