PRIVATE HOSPITALS.

NZ Truth, Issue 89, 2 March 1907, Page 4

PRIVATE HOSPITALS.

"Outspoken" writes .—lt was with great pleasure that I read your leading article last week on private hospitals, and' l hope that the Government will be stirred t6 do something m the matter. Not long ago, the then Premier, Mr Seddon, passed an Act, requiring all hospital nurses to pass, an oxamination arid to be registered. To my knowledge,, this rule is more honored :>in the .breach Hixtea -mm* :4>here]^er^Rej^p^'-oM«%^ do we "find a so-called prLvate hospital to be nothing more nor less than a house of ill-fame. There are many instances of this 'kind existing at . the present time m Wellington, and you did ciuite right m warning the public of the fact. It is not very long ago since a woman, who was i cpnvicted m one town for false pretences, was to be seen daily patad- I ing the streets of Wellington m a green hospital-nurse's uniform and there was also a case on the West Coast of the North Island where a woman from the back blocks went to { one of these hospitals and was put j into sheets that a patient had used who was ill with scarlet fever. Naturally enough the unfortunate woman took the cpmpla*int and died. This case was mentioned on.the: floor of the house; but nothing came of it. Hardly any private hospitals m Wellington to-^day are run by certificated nurses, and the 'Government should be stirred to action and compel these j places to close unless the matron and her staff are certificated nurses and have passed State examinations, as it is manifestly unfair to women- who have passed these examinations to have their living taken from them by . j others who are too ignorant to pass an ordinary third standard examination. „ ,