WHANGAREI HOSPITAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22701, 13 April 1937, Page 14

WHANGAREI HOSPITAL

FINANCES SHOW SURPLUS STAFFING OF WOMEN'S WARD [bt telegraph—OWN correspondent] WHANGAREI, Monday A statement of the actual maintenance receipts and expenditure for the year ended March 31, submitted to the Whangarei Hospital Board to-day by the treasurer, Mr. J. H. Marwick, shows a credit balance of £2212. The board commenced the year, with an overdraft of £BS. Tho surplus was mainly the result of the large increase in patients' payments, which totalled £9490, as against £7533 received the previous year, and an estimate of £6900. , • The total receipts for the year were £24,990, and the total expenditure £22,779. The chief increases in the expenditure were salaries and wages, which totalled £9llO for the year,' against £8277 for the previous year. Mr. J. G. Barclay, M.P., said he thought the position very satisfactory, and the chairman should withdraw tho statement he had made some months ago that the increased costs would bo more than the increased fees collected.

The chairman, Mr. J. A. S. Mackay, said that if the position at the end of the present year compared favourably with the existing position ho would admit he was wrong. A request that the board should employ more probationers or assistants, particularly in the .women's ward, in order to give the women patients more attention, was embodied in a letter which was received from Mrs. E. M. DorehMl, of the Whangarei District Federation of Women's Institutes. The chairman said ho had no knowledge of the women's ward being understaffed , and he had not heard of any complaints. Mr. W. J. Bell: This is not a complaint, but it is the contention that tho nurses in the women's ward aro very busy and rather than trouble them the patients.do not ask for some of the attention to which they are entitled. Mr. Barclay said tho letter seemed in the nature of a complaint, but he recognised that the women's ward was one of the most difficult in the institution.

" After hearing the medical superintendent, Dr. W. Hall, and tho matron, Miss E. Swayne, the hoard decided to reply that the women's ward and the hospital generally were fully staffed and compared favourably with other hospitals in the Dominion.