"LOSS OF FREEDOM"

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 110, 12 May 1939, Page 10

"LOSS OF FREEDOM"

MATERNITY CONTRACT

NURSES' OBJECTIONS

ASSIGNMENT TO CASES

(Special to the 'Evenlno Post")

CHRISTCHURCH, This Day,

Objections to the principle of assignment to cases without any right of selection by the nurse concerned is one of the main causes for the obstetrical nurses of Christchurch deciding not to sign the contracts offered by the State, as they feel that this will be a loss of freedom. A meeting of nurses on Monday evening decided not to co-operate, but nurses have been advised by the Department of Health that the offer of contract still remains open and that applications will be given consideration.

The main objection, and one felt very keenly by the majority of nurses, is the less of personal- freedom that would result from the signing of a contract. At present they are able to make their ov/n terms of contract with their patients or with private maternity homes, and they feel that by accepting the terms offered by the Government the nurse will become, in effect, a Government servant, bound to obey orders, and subject to penalties if she fails to obey them. It is felt that the situation of a servant being fined by an employer for failure to carry out orders is unfair and unusual. HOURS OF WORK. The terms and conditions of the nurse's duty are felt to be badly defined and entirely to the disadvantage iof the nurse. It is required under the regulations that a nurse shall remain on the premises where she is nursing for 20 of the 24 hours of the day, \ which gives, in effect, a 140-hour week. The regulations provide that she shall be given accommodation, but there is no provision for the supply of food or a definition of the accommodation that shall be given to the nurse living on the premises.

It is felt that the terms of remuneration will leave nurses worse off than they are now. as there is no provision for waiting time, and no time limit for payment. The payments specified under the regulations are smaller than those usually paid now, and nurses feel that there might in many instances be difficulties in collecting the balance. Further, no provision is made for payment in cases where treatment extends beyond 14 days, or where ante-natal attention is needed, and cases of this sort are far from uncommon. There is no stipulation as to who shall do ordinary housework on the premises in the event of there being nobody in the household willing or able to perform these services.

One provision in the regulations that is very strongly resented is the provision regarding notification of change of residence. The regulation is felt to [be so cumbersome and burdensome •as to be absurd. The regulation provides that three months' notice must be ■ given of a change of residence, and it iis felt that notification of, the local medical officer of health and the pro- ! spective patients would be quite adequate. SECURING DEPUTIES. Another of the regulations that is felt to be burdensome and most unfair is that requiring that a nurse unable to attend a patient whom she has undertaken to attend, or to whom she has been assigned, must V> responsible for procuring a deputy. In practice this might be impossible, and would make her liable to a penalty of up to £5. It is stated by nurses that to fix an exact date for the beginning and ending of a case is impossible, and that in the ! event of a case being a week late or a week early, a nurse might have great difficulty in arranging a deputy if at! the time she was assigned to another! case. I

The profession regards the provisions for maternity homes as much less rigid than those for private nurses, but a number of anomalies are stated to have crept in. The charges to be collected by the homes are not well enough defined to make it possible to estimate whether homes could be carried on under them. There is an objection to the clause requiring licensees of homes to show sufficient reason why they refuse to take a patient.

Apart from the individual objections, nurses feel that there will under the regulations be a serious loss of the freedom which the profession has enjoyed. It is also very strongly felt that the regulations have been drawn up entirely with the patient in mind and with little consideration for the nurses.

POSITION OF DOCTORS

(By Telegraph.) (Special to the "Evening Post.")

NEW PLYMOUTH, This. Day,

Every doctor in Taranaki with an interest in a private maternity hospital has signed the hospital contract covering maternity benefits under the Social Security Act, but In accordance with the general attitude of the New Zealand division of the British Medical Association has refused to sign a personal contract.

Commenting on this. Dr. S. W. Crawford, secretary of the Taranaki division of the association, said: "It is purely a question of individual action. The fact that the owner of a hospital is a medical man has nothing to' do with it. He signs the contract as the licensee of the maternity hospital and not as a doctor."