Cuts hit Nurse Maude service

Press, 3 September 1982, Page 4

Cuts hit Nurse Maude service

Care of the sick in Christchurch is being restricted and reduced through lack of funding, says the Nurse Maude District Nursing Association’s annual report. District' nursing services now had to be budgeted on a reducing level, as a result of cuts in Government funding, said the association’s chairman, Mr R. G. Compton, in his report. District nursing visits could no longer be on demand, he said. All requests for services had to be supervised and screened. District nursing visits for

the year numbered 176,140, about 20,000 fewer than the previous year. The association had a deficit of $145,024 for the year. Had it not been for voluntary cuts, the deficit would have been $231,664. Mr Compton said that the association’s two hospitals, Nurse Maude Memorial Hospital and Averill House, had occupancy rates during the year of 99 and 96 per cent, respectively. The report sho.wed that the association's 83 district nurses gave 176,686 treatments in the year, an average of 3398 a week.