Free biscuits end

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33933, 28 August 1975, Page 2

Free biscuits end

GX.Z. Press Association) l AUCKLAND. August 27. The Auckland Hospital Board has stopped free biscuits for nurses and doctors, and will now supply them only with cups of tea. “We are not allowed biscuits now with morning and

I afternoon teas.” said a doctor in the staff cafeteria at Green Lane Hospital today. The board expects to save I $50,000 a year by the action. The board is also cutting laundry costs by making Leach uniform last a day or itwo longer before it is J washed. NURSE’S BOARD The board, it is believed. 1 ■ would like to increase to something more realistic the; $8 a week its nurses pay for full board and meals, but it! cannot do this without Gov-! ernment consent. i The chairman of the board! I (Dr F. W. E. Rutter) said to- ! dav that in manv cases i

uay tuat in many cases ; administrative costs were! . tied too closely to clinical j expenses to be separated., ! Clerks were needed to admit' . patients and to send reports; j to general practitioners. Ord-!' j erlies and domestics were, ' needed for the patients the doctors treated. The board's head office was; I probably the only place I administrative costs could bed reduced without affecting patients, but expenses there ■ were cut to the minimum a[ , long time ago, and board | i office staff did not get free' [biscuits, said Dr Rutter.- [ MORE ON PAYROLL The Minister of Health; j (Mr McGuigan) has said that. . the Auckland board had 700! more on its payroll last March than a year before — . and only half of these were 1 doctors and nurses. Dr Rutter did not dispute! this. He said that it had be-! [come easier to get orderlies; and domestics recently, but [ ithey had been employed only'

because they were necessary. Since patient turnover had increased 8.3 per cent in the four months ended July, compared with the corresponding period last year, he believed the extra staff earned their keep.