NAPIER HOSPITAL

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 142, 17 June 1937, Page 20

NAPIER HOSPITAL

INQUIRY CONTINUED

DISEASE AMONG CHILDREN

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

NAPIER, This Day.

An allegation that when she complained about her child contracting disease she was told that she should get her husband's blood tested, was made by a mother who gave evidence lyesterday before the Royal Commission which is inquiring into the management of the Napier Hospital.

Another mother said she waslold that the rumour was utter rot After her child was discharged she screamed every time she was taken near a bath. A father said he had heard for the first time in court that day that his child had had the disease. A nurse said that the sheets were discoloured by disinfectants. Another nurse said that the bath had to be maintained at 110 degrees. The bed linen was not always what it Should be because of the stains of disinfectants. A third nurse said that the first collapse alarmed her. She thought it created an emergency, and informed the sister in charge. The child's pulse was weak and rapid. Her instructions were to bath the children at 114 degrees. The treatment of the collapsed child continued after the collapse. SUPERINTENDENT'S EVIDENCE. Joseph James Foley, medical superintendent of the hospital for three years, said that he could not say how the disease broke out' It may have been brought in undetected in an affected child. It was not likely that the disease was introduced by a visitor or one of the staff. Precautionary measures were taken promptly. There was no need to become panicky about the appearance of the disease in any hospital, but serious view had to be taken. If a nurse was in difficulty her duty was to report to the matron. He was satisfied that everything possible was done to check the outbreak. The request for a special nurse was turned down because the work would not provide a full-time job. One nurse was said to be unsatisfactory and the instructions were given to "bump her," but the matron held that this might be construed that she was responsible. Witness said that he did not know until some weeks after the child died that it had had hot bath treatment He did not go near the child in the bath, although he saw it. Apparently the treatment went beyond the doctors' orders except in Dr. Berry's case. Witness admitted that he denied to oarents that the children had the disease. . :