MATERNITY WARDS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 4 December 1924, Page 7

MATERNITY WARDS.

EXTRA EDITION.

IN PUBLIC HOSPITALS. MINISTER’S OPINION. ADMISSIONS TO HOSPITAL. PRESENT SYSTEM CRITICISED. [The opinion was expressed by Sir Maui Pomare (Minister in Charge of Hospitals), in an interview at New Plymouth, to-day that maternity wards should he attach>ed to all public hospitals, and that only qualified nurses, who would be trained to deal with maternity cases, should be -allowed to attend to such casefe. The question of admission to and medical staffing of hospitals was also referred to by the Minister.! (Special to Star.) NEW PLYMOUTH, Dec. 4. Sir Maui Pomare, in the course of art interview, indicated' that the question of private maternity wards was under consideration. In view of this he would not go fully into the question, but he said that every hospital should have a maternity ward and the nursing of maternity cases should form part of the training of qualified nurses. Instead of women being taken promiscuously a'nd without previous nursing training, and being trained as. midwives, trained hospital nurses should be, the only ones who should act as such. For “that reason evei'v hospital should have its maternity ward. Sir Mani Pomare also referred to the question of admission to and the medical staffing of hospitals, fie said that in some districts it was left almost entirely in the hands of the medical men as to who should he admitted to hospitals, by the system of issuing permits for admission He quite agreed that ft public hospital should be open to anyone, and the skill of the medical staff, together with the equipment of the hospital, should be at the disposal of rich and poor alike. No discriminatiQU should be made as to treatment, but the rich man should be made to pay for any special treatment he received’ For that reason the - idea of having what the Americans called “paying. wards” was a. question that had to be decided by the various hospital boards. He added that the tendency was to. pay adequate salaries and do away with honorary medical staffs. This would eliminate a whole lot of trorible, and- people would not be able to blame the: medical fraternity for favouritism in “pinching” each other’s patients’ ol* anything of that kind.