HOSPITAL BOARD ELECTIONS

Evening Star, Issue 18258, 24 April 1923, Page 2

HOSPITAL BOARD ELECTIONS

MRS MACDONALD'S CANDIDATURE. PLEA EOII WOMEN’S REPRESENTATION. Mrs Macdonald, who is standing for a seat on tho Hospital Board, gave an address in connection with her candidature this afternoon. Mrs Macdonald said that she had not intended to address the electors, because she thought that her practical experience of hospitals in Australia and New Zealand, England and Prance, extending over a period of ten years, and' her past two years’ service on tho Hospital Board fully .justified her in seeking re-election. But the extraordinary attitude tho Citizens’League had taken against women forced her to give a few reasons why women should have direct representation on the Hospital Board*.

ThcwCitizens’ League was formed to protect them from tho Socialists; now it desired to protect them from women. This meant tliat it was really waging war against women. This longue, instead of proving a power for good in tho community, was proving a menace, because it was stirring up class and sex warfare. Tho law of tho country in 1893 gave them tho right to vote and' the right to sit on local bodicfi. Why, then, should a small body of men wish to disfranchise them? How wore they to know if this great unknown body was capable or oven intelligent enough to direct them how to vote when they had no indication of the status of any of its members? Rumor said they were tho armchair generals of tho war, the merchant princes, tho leaders of thought, the litterateurs, the stockbrokers and members of the Chamber of Commerce, representatives of tho City Council, the Harbor Board, and oven the Hospital Board; but how wore they to ho sure? Dame Rumor was ever a* lying jade. She quoted from tho Hon. Mark Cohon’s speech in the Legislative Council when dealing with tho Justices of tho Peace Amendment Bill: “ The fact that the womanhood of New Zealand has in tho past shown itself willing and qhle to profit by tho education that it receives in the public schools of this country warrants me in saying that I think there is no position •which our women might not fill. I believe with the Prime Minister of this dominion that the day is coming, and coming soon, when women will have the right to sit in both branches of tho Legislature. Women will insist upon it, and it is not consistent for us to refuse their right so to sit. To do so shows a lack of chivalry on onr part, and we should see to it that women take their fair share of the administration of all public affairs.” Mrs Macdonald asked who was better able to guide them —a man whose name was a household word throughout Otago, one who had been in the forefront of every humanitarian movement in the province for the last forty years, or a body of men who wore daring enough to attack them, hut had not the courage to publish their names. They reminded her of the fly in zEsop’s fable—tho fly perched on the cart wheel, and as the wheel revolved the little fly said: “Dear me! What a dust I raise!”’ .She claimed tliat women had a right to be represented on the Hospital Board because the personnel of hospitals consisted largely of women. In Dunedin Hospital alone there were 157 women* employed, against forty-six men. Without women the work of hospitals oonld not be carried on. Surely, then, their demand for representation was not unreasonable. It was claimed that women were unable to deal with the financial questions of the board. This was a fallacy. Any fool could waste money, but it took a woman to save it. A woman member of the board with an aptitude for finance quickly grasped the fundamentals of hospital finance under the capable and efficient chairmanship of Air A. F. Quelch, a country representative. Against this argument she would like to call their attention to the sound financial condition of the Otago Women’s Club, which was solely run by women, and had at the helm Mrs H. L. Ferguson, an es-membcr of the Hospital Board. The position, financially and otherwise, of this club was such as might well bo envied by any club controlled by men. Reference has been made to the cost per occupied bed. Here sho would like to quote an eminent authority, who said : “ Tho question of cost in hospitals occupies an altogether fallacious position in tho hospital world. Cost by itself _is an. unreliable guide as to what a hospital is doing. The true function of cost is that of a danger signal, and that, is how it ought to bo interpreted.” Hitherto tho question of cost had almost entirely monopolised the thoughts of the administration; but no one who wished to administer a hospital efficiently could do so on a cost basis alone. There was a science that had been neglected in hospital administration, and that was the science of measurement, which should be applied to every department in the hospitals. Let them measure their staff, their food, their gas, their coal, their breakages, and if the measurements were right—that was to say. if the consumption was right—the cost would look after itself. This applied not to tho cost of buying but to tho cost within tho hospital. Bile considered that it should be a charge on the women if returned to the board to take steps to further the movement for superannuation for nurses, to break down the combine that existed between tho four main boards and give to trained nurses, sisters, and matrons a salary which would at least allow them to put by a little for a rainy day. Nurses did not want charity; they desired a proper superannuation scheme, and salaries at least equal to those paid to nurses in the Government service. The working hours for nurses in public hospitals were very reasonable, and should not bo further curtailed, because any further reduction would not be to tho best interests of the patients. In October, 1921, she submitted a report to the board asking for tho appointment of a nurse housekeeper or dietitian. Food played so important a part in modem medicine that this department should be in the hands of a woman, and that woman an export. _ There was nothing wrong with the quality or quantity of food supplied in tho hospital, but sho contended that there was lack of imagination shown in tho preparation. A committee of the board should bo set up to confer with the medical superintendent, matron, sisters of wards, home sister, and house surgeon, and receive suggestions from them for changing the dietary scale in such a way as to give a greater variety at tho same, if not at a lower, cost. Oyer and over again sho had urged the necessity for regular visits to the institutions, when they should meet the medical superintendent, matron, and heads of other departments, and thus gain first-hand knowledge of tho work of all departments. These visits were few and far between at present. It would be said that women worried too much about details; but no one could manage a’hospital successfully without getting down to details—even to crockery breakages. Faithful in little, faithful in much.

Speaking of the Benevolent Institution, Mrs Macdonald said that too much praise could not be given to Mr Talhoys. This was the ono and only institution under the board’s control that was visited regularly and inspected throughout. The old people were not forgotten by the ratepayers, and many dainties were provided by a number of ladies, -who took a keen interest in them. She visited the institution frequently, and on the whole found the inmates contented and well cared for. It was not desirable to have private wards in public hospitals, except for patients requiring radium treatment. Eadium should be used only in the hospital, and the profits should go to lie radium fund. It was unfortunate that the board was still unable to open Wakari Hospital; but the doctor’s house attached thereto should be leased, if only to prevent it from falling into disrepair. If the board thought that it already had sufficient accommodation for T.B. cases without opening Wakari it should seriously consider the advisability of removing the F»ver Hospital to Wakari, and so save the expense of running Lake Logan Hospital and the shelters at Wakari as separate institutions. Her ideal of civic patriotism was too high to allow her to ask them to come out mid give a block vote for the women, as the Citizens' League was asking for the men. But she urged (hem to exercise their votes, and to sec that their friends, neighbors, and relatives exercised theirs,

so as to give women fair representation on the Hospital Board, and then, on p lling day when the numbers went up, the Citizens’ League would realise the power of women, and recall, perhaps, the words of King Solomon : —“Who is Hie thatlooketh forth as the morning. Fair as the moon. Clear as tho sun. Terrible as an army with banners." [Extended report by arrangement.]