HOUSE SURGEONS

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 100, 30 April 1931, Page 13

HOUSE SURGEONS

SOME DISSATISFACTION

THE LIVING CONDITIONS

The house surgeons of tho Wellington Hospital have for some time been dissatisfied with their general conditions of work, in particular with the quality, variety, and serving of their food. They complain that there is no healing of their bedrooms; that tho recreation room is inadequately heated by stenm; and that there is no room in which they can study in quiet. They state that they are compelled to take professional responsibility for. furnishing insurance certificates of patients and are not allowed to collect the- fees. In most other hospitals the practice is that tho fees go to the officers furnishing the reports, but in the AVellington Hospital the fees go to the board.

The chairman of the board (Mr. 1\ Castle) stated to-day that the house surgeons appeared to have a feeling of injustice in connection with the board's assessment of the value of their "living-in" accommodation, and the application of the cut to this allowance as well as to their ordinary pay. Mr. Castle said that, from the board' 3 point of view, the matters in dispute in regard to the cut were not serious. The question only involved the house surgeons and one or two of the principal officers, and no doubt tho difficulty could be satisfactorily adjusted. lie considered that tho house surgeons should not have published an advertisement stating that they "would be glad 'to hear of vacancies in other hospitals or of locnms," as the difficulty could have boon dealt with in tho ordinary way. So far as the application of the 10 per cent, cut was concerned, tho question was whether tho accommodation should, be valued at £100 a year or a lesser sum. It appeared that the Christchurch Board had adopted £52 as the value of "living-in" or accommodation at the hospital.