NURSES' NEW HOME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19031, 30 May 1925, Page 10

NURSES' NEW HOME.

MINISTERIAL OPENING. . ACCOMMODATION FOR FUTURE ' PRESENT NEEDS EXCEEDED. I SUPERANNUATION QUESTION. Tho additions to the nurses' homo at the Auckland Hospital, which have been completed at a cost of over £58,000, were officially opened yesterday by tho Minister for Health, Sir Maui Pomare. j A representative gathering of over 100 , people attended the ceremony, which was i held at the main entrance of the home. Among those present wero Sir Truby King, Director of Child Welfare; Dr. . Watt, Acting-Director-General of Health; . Mr. George Baildon, Mayor of Auckland; • Archbishop Averill and a number of > delegates to the Hospital Board's Conference. i Mr. W. Wallace, chairman of the Auck--1 land Hospital Board, thanked the Minis--5 tor for attending to open tho new buildJ ing. Ho said tho visitors would have an opportunity of seeing it, and ho was sure • tho local body representatives who | grumblod at the board's expenditure j would agree that hero money had been well spent. When tho hospital was established, said Mr. Wallace, tho nurses were accom- . modated in the main building in rooms now occupied by the medical superintendent. That showed how many of them thero must have been. Later the top floor of the main building was subdivided to accommodate a staff of 42. Tho first • separate building for nurses was completed in 1891. This was enlarged at . various times, notably by the addition ' of a large new wing in 1910 at a cost of £19,500, and a new kitchen and dining . room were built later. One Day Off in Seven. > To provide for extra accommodation • required in order to give nurses one day . off in seven, tho "observation cottage" j was altered at a cost of £3BOO. The board was proud that it had been the ' first large board to introduce this limi- • tation of nurses' hours. Up to the erection of the new building £34,187 had been spent on providing accommodation for nurses, and tie grand 1 total was now £92,387. This might seem 1 a very large sum, but the board had to ' look after 200 nurses and provide for ; the future. With the new building, there • would be accommodation for 312 nurses, J and before very long all this would be > needed. It had been intended at first to > leave 48 rooms unfinished, but it was de- • cided to let the contractors complete the 1 work at a cost of £3525. The total cost • of the building was £55,747, and of the 3 furnishings, £2500. There were 175 rooms in tho new building, and the nurses would have the bene--1 fit of a tennis court on the roof and a " tepid swimming bath in the basement. J They did eight hours' arduous work daily " and they deserved all the comfort the ' board could give them. I Between Scylla and Charybdis. ' The Mayor congratulated the board on i the fine new buildings it had erected. - He said that as a member of the board until the end of last year he had taken 1 a great interest in the buildings, which i were a credit to everybody concerned. " This is not the first time I have had the pleasure of attending a ceremony at the Auckland Hospital," said Sir Maui Pomare. " I seem to have laid many foundation stones. The last time I was here I was presented with a rule, a spiritlevel and a wife-beater—l do not know ■ what you call it, a mallet, I suppose." (Laughter.) Sir Maui mentioned that he was not actually Minister for Health, seeing that his resignation had been handed in this week. lie paid a tribute to the work of the hospital boards and to the spirit of sweet reasonableness in which they met him when he did not wholly approve of ' their development schemes. He was in i sympathy with alf the resolutions of the , recent conference, except one. The eounty councils were continually asking him to 1 increase hospital patients' fees in order 1 to relievo the rates. He was between , Scylla and Charybdis, and he hoped the boards would help him to find a way out. The conference would agree with him that the indigent must have first claim 1 on the hospitals, and that the relief of ■ sickness must always be the first consid- . el'ation. Course of Maternity Training. . Reverting (jo hospital buildings, the , Minister said ho did not like' "frills" upon them, and ho saw none in Auckland, ' He was glad of expert advice in review- . ing plans, and in one instance this advice had saved £40,000. i On an earlier visit ho had promised tho nurses that ho would introduce a superannuation scheme. A bill was on ■ the stocks, and he hoped to introduce it this session. The nurses had asked for maternity training in tho St. Helens Hospitals. lie intended to go further and hand these institutions over to the boards, • on condition that they did not restrict the training to qualified nurses, but allowed other approved women to take courses and qualify. Sir Maui declared the building open and afterwards turned on the water supply of tho swimming-bath, which lie termed "tho bath oj' Psycho." He was tnken to'tho roof in the lift and inspected the tennis court. Afternoon tea was served later by the nurses in their largo dining room.