HOSPITAL STAFFS

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 February 1947, Page 9

HOSPITAL STAFFS

REDUCED HOURS NOT YET POSSIBLE AGREEMENT WITH PRINCIPLE (P.A.) DUNEDIN, Feb. 5. While agreeing with the principle of a 40-hour week for hospital staffs, delegates to the New Zealand Hospital Boards’ Association conference in Dunedin to-day decided that it was not yet possible to reduce hours. . All delegates agreed that nurses’ salaries should be increased on the basis of a 40-hour week, and .that the salaries of other hospital staff should also be raised. “The framing of nurses’ salaries will be governed by regulations,” said the president (Mr J. W. Dove). “Would Have to Close Wards”

Mr H. F. 'ffoogoo.d (Wellington) said that nurses’ salaries could be increased by 20 per cent, to compensate them for working longer hours at a time when some people thought New Zealand could maintain its standard of living and social services on a 40-hour week. If a 40-hour week was introduced to hospitals the boards would have to close wards. “The executive has obtained opinions from the matrons of training schools and the Department of Health, and, in addition, it has referred the matter to hospital boards,” stated the executive’s report, which was adopted by the conference. “The reaction of ths. matrons of training schools to the proposal of a 40-hour week was one of general approval. Early realisation of this goal, however, is limited by many factors, including the present supply, of nurses and the provision of accommodation to house extra nurses..

“The position could be met to some degree by increasing the holiday period, but here again the shortage of nurses is an obstacle. The executive affirms the principle of payment to nurses on the basis of a 40-hour week.” Unions Suggested. A remit from Buller suggested that hospital boards should encourage nurses to organise unions and obtain conditions enjoyed by other workers —reasonable wages and reasonable hours of. work —but this remit was heavily beaten. One delegate said that if there was a strike nurses might be called out in sympathy. He thought that nurses were happy with their present organisation. The following remits on salaries were adopted by the conference: — “That the present nurses’ salary scale be reviewed with the object of a general all-round increase. “That the salary of qualified general trained nurses should not be reduced when attending a training hospital for maternity or midwifery examinations.

“That the conference views with alarm the xvorking of stabilisation regulations on the salaries paid to executive officers and specialists. This is a distinct disadvantage in appointing and retaining first-class executive officers and specialists to hospitals. It recommends the Government to vary the regulations to meet the needs of hospital boards. “That the Hospital Boards’ Association draw up a scale of salaries to apply to full-time medical officers of all hospitals.”