Hospital hampered by Human Rights Act

Press, 23 August 1979, Page 4

Hospital hampered by Human Rights Act

An exemption from the Human Rights Act is sought by the North Canterbury Hospital Board to counter a shortage of male psychiatric nurses.

The act forbids discrimination between the sexes when advertising job vacancies, and this is causing problems for the board. Male psychiatric nurses are scarce, and recruiting is being hindered because the board cannot advertise specifically for them. The board had originally tried to get around the problem, said the chairman of its institutions committee (Mrs L. C. Gardiner) at a board meeting yesterday. Advertising in such male-oriented areas as the scouting movement had not been successful, however. She said she had been told that seeking exemption was akin to asking the police for permission to go shop-lifting on a certain day. In her opinion there was a loophole in the Human P gilts Act, however. It said that the Human Rights Commission could grant permission to advertise for a particular sex under certain conditions where a “plan or programme” would “assist’’ them. “We must point out that patients at- Templeton are human beings and should have nurses who contribute to a family atmosphere,” Mrs Gardiner said. Both male and female nurses were needed, she said. “We have a large group of patients out there who are growing up and who need a father figure and a mother figure. Miss B. C. Brankin, the board’s chief nursing officer, said she had encountered similar problems on a recent study tour overseas. In the United States, nurses from Canada were encouraged to apply for jobs by being offered fares and settlement expenses and having them deducted from their wages. Many New Zealand-trained nurses overseas would like to return home but did not have the fare, Miss Brankin said. It was agreed to investigate the idea. Rest home subsidies No reply d yet been received from the Minister of

Health (Mr Gair) to the board’s submissions for rest home subsidies for psychiatric patients. Mrs Gardiner said it was “most unsatisfactory that a matter towards which we have been working for some years is still no further ahead.” The question had been discussed since psychiatric hospitals were transferred to hospital board control. Subsidies were available in the Auckland district but nowhere else, Mrs Gardiner said. “We are being discriminated against and I feel this' is not fair to our patients.” , One of the principles of integration was that it should end the isolation of psychiatric hospitals. Mrs Mollie Clark said that not a great deal of money was involved. “They are just being niggly. It is very hard to explain to people that we are not being discriminatory and that we are just the handmaidens of the Government.” Code of rights A final draft of a code of rights is being prepared. A report from the institutions committee said that this should take the form of a general statement of the rights and responsibilities for patients and staff, rather than a code, which might have legal connotations. Mrs Clark objected, quoting the dictionary definition of the word “code.” She said it concerned her that people were worried about legal commitments.

There was increasing difficulty in getting clear infer, mation about anything. “It makes you wonder how the Good Lord got the 10 Com. mandments through,” she said. New laundry

Private hospitals, geriatric homes, and the Nurse Maude Association have not been ruled out from the possibility of having their washing done at the board’s new laundry at Sunnyside Hospital. Mrs Gardiner said it should be quite clear that the board was interested in doing laundry for such charitable institutions, and the possibility was part of the brief for the complex.

Mr H. T. Dean, chairman of the works committee, had said that the laundry was basically to meet the predicted increase in the board’s own patients, but that the matter would be looked at when the new complex was working. Car parking More car parking will be available .to the public visiting Christchurch Hospital, Space will be available on the manse site until 2.30 p.m. each day. The move follows discussions between hospital board staff and City Council traffic engineers. It is made possible by allocating parking space for hospital staff elsewhere, although they will be allowed to park there after 2.30 pm.