HOSPITALS AND CHARITABLE AID.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12567, 31 July 1901, Page 6

HOSPITALS AND CHARITABLE AID.

DR M'GREGOR'S REPORT. [Fn'oJi Our Sxvecial Correspondent.] ■ WELLINGTON, July 30. ■The past ycae presents no new feature in regard to charitable aid administration, savo Dr M’Gregor in his annual report c-ni the hospitals and charitable institutions of the colony. . The country, bo says, io prosperous, work of various kinds is not ■difficult to obtain, and these facts, together with the- reduction effected by ola f»3 e p-nxions has reduced the amount distributed in outdoor relief from £so,Hot) in 1890 _to £42,180 for the year ending March 31, 1901. Speaking generally, ne goes on to say that ihe local beards and tneir secretaries are doing their best to keep -down the fiutdoor relief that leads to pauperism. The Wellington Benevolent Trustees Have shown themselves progressive. During the past two years they have restricted a too uiv.sh outdoor rebel and improved the quality of tiie rations given. in 1399 their expenditure on out relief was £sbb4, last year it was £3968. The Dunedin Benevolent Society changes not its policy, and is conservative. Outdoor nitidis are sup-p Le-d on the contract system. It is the only city where a woman visitor is not employed, although- experience teachei, us how advantageous both to the ratepayers and to the relief applicant- is a careful investigation of cases by the right sort ot women. 'The expenditure of tins Society on outdoor relief, in 1300 was £6715, this year it is £5831, ' The remedy tor the disease of pauperisation rests solely with-the citizens. The Government has no power over relief distributing bodies, it rests with the people to choose wise .and: humane, men and ivomen having some knowledge of ■social needs to act as their representatives on. local administrative bodies. The institutions to provide indoor relief to aged and destitute persona attain a fair average of excellence. The Caversham Home (Dunedin) and- the Costley Heme (Auckland) are fine'buildings, each containing over two hundred inmates, but he adds that both are situated in parcels of land much too small and, at no distant date must be removed, and the money spent on building lost.’ The Wellington Beard proposes to spend the .money it has earned) by careful management, by extending the Oliiro Home, which stands on a barren ridge of about four acres, and this, in -spite of the certainty that the whole building must shortly be abandoned. To make matters wo me, the land is , not theirs. . Dr M’Gregor eays that- it , is a painful experience ,to visit the Napier. Old Men’s, Home. If some kindly disposed and intelligent residents of, Napier visited the InfirmaryWard, and let the public know about the building and conditions prevailing, there would scon be an agitation for a more suitable place for the old and infirm of the Hawke’s Bay district. .. It is, he adds, pleasant to be able to record a distinct improvement in the" Alexandra Home, Wellington, and lie also speaks well c-f the Wellington Convalescent Home, and the Home for aged and needy. Dr M'Gregor goes on to urge the necessity of a Central Receiving Home where the incurable, helpless, and bedridden men and women could be placed un-. der the charge of hospital-trained nurses, and no longer left to the ignorant and ofttimes cruel tendance of a fellow-inmate. One such,institution in either island would probably be sufficient for the present. Dr M’Gregor writes at some length on onr hospital system, and in doing so, remarks that an' evil which seems inseparable from the system of local government is the unjustifiable interference of Hospital Trustees ini tho selection of probationers and tire promotion of nurses. The matron and the medical officer, if they are at all fit for their positions, are responsible for -the efficient nursing of the hospital; yet, members of the Board combat their recommendations, insist on the appointment and promotion of friends of their own, and the consequence is that too often the seniors, or change nurses'are not of the best type. Further, only in some of our larger hospitals has it been found possible to give any systematic training to nurses, or to provide any satisfactory way, of testing and certifying their proficiency by examination. In many cases, not only are probationers not- taught,'but there is ,a positive tendency, encouraged on the score of expense, to have as many probationers as possible, who get no pay for a .period, and often no regular instruction. ' The result is' such art output of hospital nurses that the profession is nearly swamped- by them., They call themselves private nurses, though in many cases they have no certificate, and could not pass any kind of an examination. They know nothing about nursing, but they add a new, and very real, as well as costly, terror to illness and death.