Calvary sisters’ centenary

Press, 24 March 1977, Page 22

Calvary sisters’ centenary

Story by

MAREE MAHONY

Photographs by

DENYSE WATSON

April 23 will be a day for celebration and remembrance for the sisters of the Little Company of Mary. It marks the centenary of the order and will be a reminder to Canterbury people that the order is still a flourishing one. “People remember that in the old days we used to go out to homes to treat patients. Now, we let them come to use and our time is nearly all taken up with the hospital,” says Sister Paulinus, superior of Calvary Hospital. The Little Company of Mary was founded in'lB77 by Mother Mary Potter in Nottingham, England." Her intention was to for® a distinctive and purely nursing sisterhood. To a great extent, this original intention has survived. In 1913, she was invited by Bishop Graimes to establish the order in Christchurch — the last house established before she died. A year later, the order set up house in Bealey Avenue, and the sisters carried out district nursing, until the first building of Lewisham Hospital was opened. During the early 1930 s the west wing top and ground floors were added, and in 1935 the east wing was opened. After the X-Ray department was built, the name of the hospital was changed from Lewisham to Little Conv pan.v of Mary, and finally 1 to Calvary. In 1940 a maternity department was ready, and the Mary Potter Hospital was opened in 1954. The hospital is run by 23 sisters, with the help of lay staff. It is the first of the four hospitals within the New Zealand province of the order to appoint a House Manager — Mr M. J. Woodward. “When the hospital was founded, it was designed for geriatric patients. We spread out to other fields because there was a need

for them.” says Sister Paulinus. “We had to have hospitals to do the kind of things we wanted to do.” Although religion plays a very important part in the daily running of the hospital, patients do not have to be Roman Catholic, nor any other particular denomination. “Catholics are in the minority,” Sister Paulinus says. “People don’t realise it, but we genuinely don’t care about religion, race, or creed.” The hospital has a 70 per cent occupancy rate, but the surgical and geriatric wards are nearly always full. Care for the dying in the Mary Potter hospital is of special concern to the sisters. After the death of a patient, the nuns give special rc.pect and attention to the body, preparing it for burial, and including any special requests made by the family of the dead person. The sisters try to keep up with changes in medical practices. “Our hospital in Wellington is beginning to keep dying patients in their own homes, with nursing staff visiting them. There is a definite trend toward this,” says one sister.

Calvary does not try to make a profit, but it wants to have enough money to cover running costs and to finance capital works in the future. “The hospital has had some difficult times in the past,” Mr Woodward says. “That is why it is now being run in a businesslike way.” The Mary Potter Charitable Trust has been formed to assist finance. Its purpose is to obtain money or property from gifts, donations, legacies, and other sources, to maintain the hospital and subsidise fees where the patient cannot meet the weekly charge. “The buildings are structurally sounds and are good for at least another hundred years,” Mr Woodward says. “So we will modernise the existing premises rather than build new wings.” In the last six months, the hospital has been carpeted and painted, and all the wards furnished with new beds. “At present, we are looking at solar heating. which will be installed in the Mary Potter Hospital at the end of this year,” Mr Woodward says. The hospital also hopes to build doctors’ premises, as some of the staff are finding it difficult to get accommodation. The hospital’s theatre and laundry are also tentatively scheduled for remodelling in the next 12 months, and it is hoped to expand the psychiatric clinic which, when established in 1962, was the first of its kind in the Southern Hemispere. Its treatment methods include individual and group psychotherapy, family counselling, and behaviour therapy. “People come in from time to time and tell us all their problems, though most patients are referred to us by doctors,” says Sister Helen Anne, head of the psychiatric department. A day-care programme provides facilities whereby distressed patients can be treated without going into hospital. A new recreational and educational hall adjoining the clinic is available to all patients. It is equipped for many therapeutic activities, including table tennis, indoor bowls, billiards, drama, films, and yoga. Two of the sisters are full-time district nurses. Calls come from distressed patients themselves, their friends, relatives, minis-

ters. doctors, and lawyers. Their work also includes fortnightly visits to prisons. All the sisters agree that the chapel in the hospital is a pivotal point in the hospital’s daily existence. “Patients and families of all denominations go there for spiritual help,” says one nun. “Often when people are ill, they come to feel the need for God,” says an-

other. “There is a different hospital atmosphere because of religion. We are told by patients over and over again about the serene calm feeling here, which is why they want to come back.” All former patients, friends, and well-wishers of the hospital will have that opportunity on April 23. There will be a mass at St Mary’s church in Manchester Street at 11

a.m. Afterwards, neopto will be invited back to Calvary to enjoy the sisters’ hospitality and visit the various departments. Each of the four houses in NeW Zealand are holding celebrations to honour the centenary of their founding. The medical clinic in Tonga which has two sisters from Christchurch on its staff, will have its celebration later in the year.