OBSTETRIC HOSPITAL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21990, 27 June 1933, Page 8

OBSTETRIC HOSPITAL

AN URGENT REQUIREMENT GOVERNMENT GRANT SOUGHT THE MINISTER SYMPATHETIC (Pee United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, June 26. The New Zealand Obstetrical Society is at present gravely concerned because the New Zealand Medical School at Dunedin falls below the minimum standard required by the General Medical Council of Great Britain, solely because it does not possess an adequate obstetric hospital. A deputation from the society waited upon the Minister of Health (Mr J. A. Young) last week and pointed out that in August, 1929, £50,000 was definitely promised for a new maternity hospital at the Medical School, and that promise had been constantly repeated by the Ministers of Health and of Education. During the obstetrical endowment appeal early in 1930 the statement that the Government was giving the hospital was everywhere used as an inducement to the public to subscribe to the sum required for the endowment teaching services. As the promoters of the appeal the Obstetrical Society has felt an obligation to the people to see that the matter is finalised. It has realised that the ■vGovernment in the last two years has been passing through tijmes of unparalleled financial stress and therefore has been content with the promise of the Director-general of Health that the building would be proceeded with as soon as finances permitted. In view of the fact that the Minister of Finance proposes to release £500,000 for constructional and developmental work the society- has-brought the urgency of the matter before the Government, maintaining that the reproach that the Dominion does not possess an adequate obstetric hospital should be removed. The situation is rendered doubly acute by the fact that the accommodation at the Batchelor Hospital at Dunedin is so congested that all normal cases have to be discharged on the tenth day. The society has learnt that negotiations are pending by which St. Helens, in Dunedin, will be enlarged to provide accommodation pro tem. As these enlargements will not bring the obstetrical unit up to the minimum standards laid down by the British Medical Council the society feels that any money spent on the 30-year-old wooden building will be money wasted, and urges that at least part, of the new building as promised/in »1929 will be listed as work of first-class importance in Mr Coates's scheme. The Minister >of Health was sympathetic to the deputation, but pointed out that the. request for a grant would have to be referred to the Minister of Finance. ' •