INVASION BY RATS AUCKLAND HOSPITAL

Grey River Argus, 2 February 1944, Page 8

INVASION BY RATS

AUCKLAND HOSPITAL

AUCKLAND, Feb. 1. Another case of a rat being found in a patient’s bed is reported from the Auckland Hospital. Several other cases have occurred in recent months. . . , The latest victim was an infant. Persistent crying attracted the attention of a nurse, who discovered a rat on the bed clothes. The child was fortunately not bitten, and suffered nothing more serious than a bad fright. A special report is being made on the matter. Less than three months ago a woman in a maternity ward I was awakened by .a rat on her pillow. The fright resulted: in the premature birth the next day of an infant, which did not survive. The same woman was awakened some nights later by a rat pulling .at her bedjacket. . At about the same period. two other women in the ward found evidence of rats in .their bedside lockers. Other patients heard rats running about the ward floor, and a rat hole was found in a wall behind a bed. On an earlier occasion, a rat was seen on a child’s bed in .another ward:. . x A decision to conduct an intensive rat campaign was made by the Hospital Board last November. This decision followed a report by the act-ing-architect that complaints indicated an increase in the number of rats, in spite of the setting of additional trans and the laying of poison. From . the beginning of June until November 8, he said, 412 rats had been caught, while many more must have been destroyed by poison. “We have done everything possible in the matter.” said the chairman of the board, Mr Allan J. Moody. He pointed out the difficulty in keeping the hospital free of the pests when they continued to come into the grounds from adjacent areas, including Grafton Gully. .The city was over-run with rats, and the matter had been brought before the City Council. „ An official of the Hospital Board said that a rat-catcher was permanently employed. Not only did he use poison, but he also worked through the area with a dog. In addition, the head hospital orderly had been given the responsibility of seeing that the grounds were kept «lean and free of anything that would attract rats.