HOSPITAL SUPERINTENDENT

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 261, 29 July 1921, Page 7

HOSPITAL SUPERINTENDENT

DR. RANDAL WOODHOUSE, D. 5.0., RESIGNS. The resignation of Dr. Randal Woodhouse, D. 5.0., M.C., as medical superintendent of the Wellington Hospital, was announced at yesterday’s mreting of the Hospital Board', Dr. Woodhouse wrote to the chairman (Mr. F. Castle) as follows:—"Dear Sir, —I herewith give notice of my intention to resign from the staff of the hospital on November 24. The board’s by-laws require three months’ notice, but at your request I write now in order that the period of notice may ba as long as possible. When I applied for my present post I had no intention of resigning so soon, and I feol that I nm apparently ungrateful for tho honour which the board conferred on mo when they appointed me their medical superintendent. I must plead in excuse that strong private reasons have now arisen which demand my present action. I wish to thank you and tho members of the board for ‘the unfailing consideration which has always been shown to me." Dr. Woodhouse ffas house surgeon nt the hospital from 1910 to 1913. He joined the N.Z.E.F. in London during August, 1914, as lieutenant in tho R.A.M.C. He was promoted major in 1918. In 1916 ho was awarded the Military Cross, and obtained a bar to that decoration the following year. He gained the D.S.O. ia 1918, having been mentioned in dispatches mtiqy times. Ho took ■up his duties as medical- superintendent of tho Wellington Hospital in July, 1919, Tho chairman, in moving that tho resignation be accepted with regret, eaid tluit tho superintendent’s action had not come to him as a surprise, as a hint of its possibility had been given him wmo weoks ago. They ail regretted Dr. Moodhouse's departure. Ho had given every satisfaction to the board; ho had efijoyed the confidence of every member, and the confidence of tho public generally. As an administrator, as (superintendent and as a surgeon he had given his beet services to the hospital for the last two years, and the fact that there had been m? complaint against him in any way showed a very fine record. It was to be hoped that they would succeed in securing a successor as capable as Dr. Woodhouse. . Messrs. J. W. M’Ewan and G. Fetherick (chairman repectivoly of the Hispital and Social Welfare Committees) added their tributes to Dr. Woodhouse, with a wish that he would enjoy all the happiness this world had to offer. Dr. Woodhouse, after thanking the members of th® board for their kind remarks, said that ho felt it might eecm scarcely fair to leave so soon after his appointment, but it was due to circumstances that could not bo foreseen—a reason that was purely private, and nothing to do with the hospital or its affairs. The Wellington Hospital ha-d been of interest to him ever since, his earliest professional days, and it had boon a great pleasure to him to see how well the various departments had worked together for the general welfare of the institution. It was left to the Hospital Committee to call for applications for tho position of superintendent as from November next. It is understood that Dr. Woodhouse is to be married to Mies Rhodes, of South Canterbury, in September.