Nurses concerned

Press, 1 December 1987, Page 9

Nurses concerned

Nurses will send a letter to the Canterbury Hospital Board expressing concern about the way two wards at Christchurch Hospital were closed.

Mrs Edna Thomas, the Nurses’ Association southern regional officer, said yesterday that some nurses were angry at the way Ward 21, a children’s ward, and Ward 26, a general surgery ward, were closed with little warning. The cost-control committee of the Canterbury Hospital Board decided last Wednesday to close Ward 21 on Saturday and Ward 26 yesterday as a cost-cutting measure.

“While the nurses can take that the board is

overspent and Christmas is a quiet time, they are angry with being told on Thursday that this would happen,” said Mrs Thomas.

“They know that this does happen at Christmas and they can abide by that, but they are concerned that the communication was not great.”

Nurses were most concerned about the closing of the pediatrics ward, she said. “There has been a lot written recently about the standard of child health and yet here is a board closing an acute pediatrics ward.”

The medical superintendent of Christchurch Hospital, Dr David

Andrews, said that the news of wards closing was always upsetting to the staff involved. "We were in a difficult situation as the board did not make the decision until late Wednesday and I was unable to get a circular out until Friday.” However, the heads of departments and charge nurses had been kept informed, he said. “I don’t think we could have done much more, unfortunately. It was not ideal, but when you are that amount of money short, to delay even another week-end would have lost another $5OOO and that’s unacceptable from a manager’s point of view.”