PLUNKET SOCIETY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26228, 12 August 1946, Page 6

PLUNKET SOCIETY

ANNUAL GRANTS INCREASED STATEMENT BY MINISTER (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Aug. 11. The Government has approved of increased annual grants being paid to the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children, said the Minister of Health (Mr Nordmeyer) to-day. , , As from April 1 of this year the basis on which annual grants to the Plunket Society will be paid is calculated as follows:

(a) Subsidy toward the salaries of Plunket nurses will be at the rate qf 60 per cent, of the actual salaries paid by the society. (b) Grants towards running expenses of motor cars used by Plunket nurses will be at the rate of half the rate payable to public servants using their own cars.

(c) The grant towards the maintenance of the Dominion training centre for Plunket nurses will be a fixed annual ’ amount. The Minister said that for the current year it will be £9OO and from the date that the enlarged training centre which the Plunket Society envisages is brought into use the annual amount will be £3OOO. (d) Grants toward the salaries and expenses of the society’s headquarters staff will be at the rate of 60 per cent, of the salaries and expenses of the nursing adviser and assistant nursing adviser and half the salaries of the medical adviser secretary and clerical, typing and caretaking staff. (e) The subsidy on the salaries of Karitane nurses who are attached to Plunket Society branches' employing 12 or more Plunket nurses will be naif of the salary paid. (f) The Government will also meet the full actual expenditure involved in the provision of rail passes and reimbursements of service car fares or grants in lieu of service car fares in approved cases. The Minister pointed out, concerning items (a), (d) and (e), that is in respect of the actual employment of staff, the grants would be conditional on the establishment of the staff and salaries paid having being approved by the Minister of Health. The Minister added that it was also proposed to pay certain increased grants to the Plunket Society in respect of capital expenditure, and a further statement on this point would be made when a decision had been reached.