ADDRESS BY SURNAMES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22504, 22 August 1936, Page 14

ADDRESS BY SURNAMES

COMMON HOSPITAL PRACTICE GISBORNE TO MAKE CHANGE [BY TKLKGItAPH —OWN CORKKSPONDKNT] GISBORNE. Friday Further reference to tho terms in which male patients in public hospitals are* addressed by nursing staffs was made by Mrs. A. E. Beer at a meeting of the Cook Hospital Board. Mrs. Beer, who previously had prompted the board to refer to the Hospitals Association tho suggestion that male patients should be given the title of "Mr." in preference to being addressed merely by their surnames, asked her colleagues to support her in asking lor tho immediate adoption of tho suggested mode of address at the Cook Hospital. She had noted that people in other parts of New Zealand, and particularly in Auckland, had regarded the proposal favourably, and that none had advanced any serious objection to it. If the Cook Hospital adopted the change, Mrs. Beer added, she had no doubt its example would be followed elsewhere, and that eventually the change would become universal, as in her opinion it should. To be addressed br one's surname in hospital, Mrs. Beer remarked further, was only slightly better than having a number on a prison roll. Dr. J. C. Collins seconded the proposal, which was carried without dissent.