ST. JOHN AMBULANCE ASSOCIATION

Evening Star, Issue 20555, 6 August 1930, Page 9

ST. JOHN AMBULANCE ASSOCIATION

The monthly meeting of the St. John Ambulance Association, held on Tuesday eevning, was well attended, there being present the president (Mr J. J. Clark), Dr A. E. Falconer (in the chair), Mrs G. M. Baker, Mrs G. M. Davis, Miss Burt, Miss Holford, Dr Borrie, Dr Fulton, and Messrs Anderson, Hanson, Moir, M'Hutchon, Peters, Salmon, and White. After the chairman had •welcomed Dr Fulton and Messrs Anderson, M'Hutchon, and Salmon on taking their seats for the first time, he went on to say_ that he, in conjunction with Superintendent Salmon, had attended a conference in the Town Hall between representative* of the City Corporation, Otago Hospital Board, Health Department, and the association on the subject of the carriage of cases of infectious disease. At present the parents or relatives of patients, particularly child patients, who had accompanied the case in the ambulance, were prohibited from returning. to their homes in any public conveyance, and in many cases had to be returned in the ambulance, which in some istances had had to go as far as Green Island on this errand. There was also a feeling that, seeing there was not any option but to use the ambulance, it was unfair to ask patients or their friends to pay for it. and that it should be a charge against the public body concerned. The result was that in many such cases the association did not receive any fee at nil. Dr Falconer said that matters were not yet finalised, but he thought that the basis of a satisfactory arrangement had been reached. The chairman also dealt with the association’s connection _ with the Mayor’s Unemployment Distress Belief Commtitee. In this matter the association was really working for the Otago Hospital Board by extending its usual activities, and he thought that the fact was recognised. The usual reports were submitted by the secretary. During July the ambulances carried 121 cases, 891 miles being travelled. The new wheels ordered from Home had arrived, and would be fitted on the machines shortly. The nurses had paid 463 visits, and four new patients had been added to their list. The financial statement showed a credit balance of £96 to meet accounts estimated at £l5O. On the motion of Miss Burt Mrs J. J. Clark was elected a member of the committee. On the motion of Mr Clark the secretary was instructed to convey to the local branch of_ the Bed Cross Society the association’s satisfaction on learning that the differences which in the past had existed between the society and the association bad been smoothed away by the Home authorities, and its hope that the two bodies would continue to work amicably to-p-ether for their common object—the good of the humanity.