NURSES’ QUARTERS

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 57, 30 November 1934, Page 12

NURSES’ QUARTERS

Insufficient Room at Public Hospital SOME OF MAIDS TO LIVE OUT With the object of providing additional accommodation for its nursing staff, the Wellington Hospital Board decided last evening to make arrangements for 32 of tile maids to live out. Tins decision follows upon a report which the superintendent, Dr. A. R. Thorne, was asked to make to the board. < The chairman, Mr. I’. Castle, said that many of the nurses had to "double bank,” or, in other words, share rooms. The practice was quite undesirable and not in accordance with the policy of the board. There were 32 maids who could live out and by this means a sufficient number of bedrooms would be made available for the nurses. The change would be made gradually, and the wages of the maids would have to be increased to some extent to compensate them for the loss of living in. Mrs. J. K. Preston: There should be plenty of accommodation in the hospital for the maids. There is a lot of waste space which I feel sure could be used. It does not seem to me that it will be a very satisfactory thing for those maids to live out. Mrs. A. McVicar: It will never be a success and will only cause worry and trouble. > The chairman: I will not have you assume that the matter has not been gone into. The position is that we have about GO maids living in. If some of them live out in their ow'n homes there is no great hardship in that. You say there is plenty of room for all the maids. Well, there was a suggestion that the old porters’ quarters might be used, but it had been found that that accommodation is more urgently needed to provide an extension to the eye, ear and nose ward. The only space I know is the old dental building down at the gate.

Mrs. McVicar: That is a good place. The chairman said that to allow nurses to double-bank was prejudicial to their health. Mrs. McVicar said she was wondering whether the maids would be fit for work if they were allowed to live out. The chairman: It is quite a common practice for maids to live out. It is possible that the actual expenditure may be held over until next year. It is all subject to the department’s approval which is required for capital expenditure or expenditure above the normal.

The views -of the matron, Miss A. IL Cookson, were set out in a report in which she stated: “I should have preferred not to have the maids living out, especially as it has not proved a success in the past. We find young domestics spend their energy staying out late too many nights when they live out, and so are unfit for duty. Also, the difficulty in obtaining the right kind of maid is already making itself felt, and the living-in helps to overcome this. These are, of course, minor considerations compared with tlie housing of nurses if the board cannot see any other way.”