NOT BLAMEWORTHY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21933, 30 January 1946, Page 7

NOT BLAMEWORTHY

FIXING NURSES’ SALARIES “This board has often been accused of being niggardly, and i.t is well that the public should know the true position,” declared Mr. H. H. Barker at yesterday’s meeting of the Cook Hospital Board. In support of this statement, he quoted from a report on nurses’ salary scales from the Hospital Boards’ Association.

This stated that "the reduction in the rates which were originally suggested was brought about by the intervention of the Department of Health. The rates which were submitted to the Stabilisation Commission by the department were increased to the approved rates as the result of negotiations. While the majority of boards have adopted the scale, at least two are of the opinion that the increases now allowed should not have been made. On the other hand, two of the large beards have protested that they should not be limited to the small increases which have been approved by the commission. It is fair to state that in a Dominion scale, the commission could not allow higher rates for one board than another, and, in fact, allowed all that was asked by the representatives of the nurses themselves.”

“Hospital boards are not responsible lor fixing the salaries, and if the public realised that it should remove some of the criticism levied at the board,” Mr. Barker pointed out.