AUCKLAND HOSPITAL

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 108, 7 May 1912, Page 4

AUCKLAND HOSPITAL

A CRISIS. ' MATTERS PROGRESS ANOTHER?* STAGE. fBT TELEGRAPH — VB^SS ASSOCIATION.] AUCKLAND, 6th May/ Affairs in connection with the administration of the Auckland Hospital have reached a crisis. Matters progressed a. stage further thifi morning, when there was placed in the hands of the hoard an ultimatum signed by every certificated tuu^e in the institution, with two exceptions. Th© communication, which was received, by Mr. Garland, secretary of the Hospital Board* read as follows : — "We, the undersigned members of the Auckland Hoepital nursing staff, respectfully desire to draw the attention ot the board to the fact that we feel we can;not with justice either to the institution or ourselves, continue to carry on our duties under the management of the present lady superintendent." The signatures include those of the de•puty lady- superintendent, the night superintendent, all the fifteen sisters in charge of wards, and ten of the twelve 6ta-ff nurses. It is stated that the two who have not signed are absent on holiday. This means that the ultimatum delivered to the board is backed by all the certificated nurses on the Auckland Hospital staff, and it is, moreover, stated that if their protect is without avail, practically the whole of the eighty odd juncertificated nurses in the institution will join in what would be tantamount to a general strike of the nursing staff. ; The new chairman of the board, Mr. H. Schofield, when seen this morning, eaid that the Action of the nursing staff had comu as a, surprise to him. A report had previously "been sent in by the chairman of the Medical Committee, commenting unfavourably upon the work of Mies Griffiths as lad} superintendent, but this was the first indication by members of the musing staff that they were dissatisfied. Mr. Scholield added that ho was to-day asking the nuieee who have' signed this ultimatum to formulate their grievances, and these would be in turn submitted to. the lady superintendent for her' reply. ' Both statements would then come before the board, and the next thing to be done would probably be to set up a bpecial committee to go into the whole business. Miss Griffiths, lady superintendent, when interviewed thin irorning, said that until she was placed in. possession of tho details of tho circumstances upon which the sisters and staff nurses had based their letter to the board, bhe wad «t a Joss to understand why this action should have been taken. Since eh© took up her ditties as matron ten. months ago She "had always made a point of inviting full ventilation of any real or iancied grievance upon the pait of any member of the staff, and had regular office hours between 9 and 11 a.m. for the purpose of negotiating such business. In connection with her administration, there were occasionally small matters requiring investigation, but fo iov as she was aware they had always bean satisfactorily adjusted, fiho certainly knew' of no reason why the membors of the staff should feel justified in appealing to the board. fc>he wa^. aware that the Inspec-tor-General of Hospitals (Dr. Valintine) did not nppro\o of her appointment, and in tome lerfpecls it had baon uphill woik for her, particulaily iirf the Medical Committee had algo been highly antagonistic to her in connection with ceitain matters pertaining to the ad/uiumtiaticii. In oveiy re«pecb she had genuinely endeavouitd Id do her bent, and toho could only think that members of the mti'i-inp; t-talf luwl been inspired to take thie uttiuiiJt; against her. On Lejng told that it was reported that thiwiuifii'-i wpie up in iwmft because of uiu-ati^fiiitory woiking anangeniont*, which even included <is much as twenty*" nine hours' duty &l a shotch in an'tfulated ward, the f>Lipe:inteud<'iit <>ai<J that bhe could •unhwiUtiugly yive &\n<:h fcUte-

ments an emphatic denial. Miss Griffiths added that she would welcome an enquiry into affairs of her department, and trusted that, in order to get hilly at the bottom of affaire, the enquiry would be of sufficient scope to cover the administration of the institution, as a whole.