Talks On Templeton Duties

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31676, 11 May 1968, Page 1

Talks On Templeton Duties

Some domestic duties which affected patient welfare at Templeton Hospital would be carried out by nursing staff as necessary to ensure that patients in no way suffered from the nurses’ ban on nonnursing duties, the medical superintendent of the hospital (Dr J. C. Marshall) said yesterday.

The ban began at midnight yesterday. The nurses are refusing to do such duties as stoking boilers, driving motor vehicles, washing and polishing floors, and washing dishes and linen. Dr Marshall said that after discussions with Public Service Association representatives and the secretary-organ-iser of the Canterbury branch of the association (Mr J. M. McKenzie), agreement had been reached on certain duties being accepted.

"I feel the term work-to-rule is a misnomer when applied to this situation when certain domestic work overlaps with nursing,” he added. “The boilers,. which have figured prominently in the discussions, will be stoked at night by other staff in the meantime,” said Dr Marshall. Arrangements had been made to pay other than nursing staff overtime rates to carry out this work at nights and at the week-end.

When the ban came into force, there was no question of the hospital not continuing to function, he added. There were one or two areas of uncertainty or doubt concerning duties which had been left open to further discussion if the occasion arose. Asked to define what domestic duties the psychopaedic nurses normally carried out, Dr Marshall said, "Once you get down to the grey areas of domestic work in relation to patient training and care, it becomes a little difficult to define precisely where the nurses’ roie lies.*’ He said a number of nursing staff had individually ex-

pressed reluctance to participate in the ban, but had been advised to accept the terms agreed to between the administration and the P.S.A. Dr Marshall also said he wished to thank people outside the hospital who had offered help, but it was felt this was not-necessary at present.

As the psychopaedic nurse extended the parent role, this would obviously overlap with purely domestic work—some did involve supervision , and training of patients who did part of the domestic work of the hospital. “No-one disputes that there is a need for more nursing staff and there is an obvious need for more domestic staff too,” Dr Marshall said. With more domestics, nursing staff recruitment would improve. Asked for figures, he said in a staff of 300 the hospital was five male nurses and three female nurses below establishment “As the role of the psychopaedic nurse is developed with new concepts in training and a greater awareness of the emotional needs of mentally

retarded people,- there is the need for increased staffiing,” said Dr Marshall.

The need for more domestics was under review by the Health Department’s Mental Health Division and consideration was being given as to whether they should be part of the ward team, or duties should be performed by outside contractors.

Clarifying an earlier statement the Medical Superintendent of Sunnyside Hospital (Dr T. E. Hall), the secretary (Mr L. Procter) said that the nursing staff at Sunnyside were involved in stoking 10 boilers at night However in two villas for women patients, arrangements had been made for male nurses to stoke two boilers at night to avoid this being done by female nurses.

Oakley Hospital’s nursing staff decided today to join their nearby Kingseat colleagues in a work-to-rule system after the end of next week, according to a Press Association message from Auckland last night