NAPIER HOSPITAL

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 255, 24 July 1937, Page 12

NAPIER HOSPITAL

Report Criticised by Hon. W. E. Barnard “TOO MUCH CONDEMNATION OF INDIVIDUALS” Dominion Special Service. Napier, July 23. “The report is like the curate’s egg —good in parts,” said the Hon. AV. E. Barnard to-day, commenting on tlie report of tlie Napier Hospital Commission. "The report would have been much more valuable if tlie commission had devoted some of the space given up to chastisement to considered proposals for the improvement of the hospital board and to methods which would inspire the fullest public confidence in the hospital administration,” said Mr. Barnard. “The generalisations which are put forward under the last paragraph of the report are sketchy and do not appear to have adequate support, while at least one of them is entirely out of place in the report. That Dr. J. A. Berry ought meekly to have submitted to dismissal from the honorary staff and that he should be severely rated for not doing so will not appeal to many as calm and sound judgment. “The report seems to have cleared up some of the individual matters, and, it is hoped, has led and will lead to much-needed improvement in the conduct of the hospital and the conditions of the nursing staff, but it makes no real contribution to the major question of the constitution of the hospital district and representation on the board. AVhat is wanted is a representative and harmonising board. Lack of this, to which the report refers only in a passing phrase, is the root cause of our hospital troubles, and the report shows by omission that the commission failed to give any serious attention to this most important subject.

“The report is, in my opinion, ill balanced. It dwells too much on condemnation of individuals, and is less convincing in consequence, and too little on the larger issues. Perhaps the order of reference might have been widened with advantage. The public will feel with some reason that the final purpose of the commission should have been to try and lay the foundations for a more satisfactory hospital system than to find a scapegoat. “The real work still remains to be done, and it would seem that Parliament will have to do it,” concluded Mr. Barnard.