MATERNITY HOSPITALS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15061, 2 August 1912, Page 6

MATERNITY HOSPITALS.

The question of maternity hospitals was forcibly presented to the Minister for Public Health, yesterday, by a representative . deputation of Wellington; medical, .'.men. They urged that-the St.' ,f lJciens hospitals "should be : placed under the local hospital' authorities; and should be made, available to poor women who needed special care, but were unable to obtain it otherwise. Dr. Valintine, who was present .insisted that the St. Helens Hospitals were working on the 'original ■ lines, and that they did good '.work throughout a. wide circle besides providing trained nurses in deserving cases. There is no necessity to defend the Auckland institution in the matter of the work it does : but it cannot be denied that its work is amazingly circumscribed or that its chief use" is to demonstrate how easily a better and wider system ' might be established. The St. Helens hospitals of the Dominion are little more than a very attractive" advertisement of a very popular scheme. They are too small and

insignificant to fulfil effectively any public function and the sooner this is grasped, by the public the sooner a more universal scheme will be possible. In Auckland, as we have pointed out, the St. Helens Hospital does not even send its nurses to the homes of patients who Ave beyond the penny tramway section, and although established for years has given no indication of a progressive and expanding spirit. " A very good case can be advanced on behalf of placing these hospitals under the local authorities. In any case, it is inevitable that the Hospital Boards will ultimately have to take up the work ambitiously commenced by the Government years ago, and to provide suitable maternity wards not only for those who can pay part of the cost of maintenance but for those who are unable to pay anything. The Wellington deputation has done a public service in pointing out that though there is hospital accommodation freely available for all other cases, there is practically none for the most urgent and the most pitiable of women's needs.