ST. HELEN'S HOMES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12816, 16 July 1912, Page 2

ST. HELEN'S HOMES.

(Per Press Association.)

AUCKLAND, last night. Mr J. H. Bradney, M.P;, was present, at a largely-attended meeting of the Auckland Waterside Workers' Union this morning to discuss the system pi ■. administration, prevailing m connection ■with the St. Helen's Home. Mr J. CqUett, who presided, said Mr Bradney had been invited to attend, iriT drder that he should' be made acquainted with the experience- of .the wives of working men present who had applied to the institution. , . . v Mrs fcmily Nieol was called ,upq{i, to generally state the- case for the uhiqri. She, said the first case she desired to 'bring; under his notice was that of the. wife of a member of the union now expecting .confinement. This woman lived within the tra.m/ r.adiu», and her house was easily reached. 'She could not leave her home to go into the institution," because there were six. little children. AJI that she had asked was that a nurse should be se^t to, her assistance when, her child 1 was born. She had. offered to pay for a cab if the nurse were required at night after the cars had ceased running. Assistance m her case was not granted. The second case, was that of a woman m Freeman's. Bay, who had ten children, and could not leave them. In her case, also, help was not. forthcoming. She also complained, that cases? were not admitted early enough fin* the comfort or safety of patients. Several workers m different parts of the hall arose, and generally endorsed Mi's Nicol's statements. v •! Mr Naylor, an officer of the union executive, said there were 1100 members m the Waterside Workers' Union, and the matter was of grea v f; importance to them. ■ : ' Mr Bradney said that if Mrs Nicol would siupply him, with particulars of .the case of the. ..woman \ residing at Kingsland he would at once wire to the Minister m charge of hospitals, and he would i bring the whole matter before Parliament. On the motion. of Mr Naylor, a resolution was carried, protesting ngainst the system of administration ,fdppted m connection with this home.. The matron of Rt.i Helen's Home, when informed of the outcome of .this morning's meeting, N said, that first,, it had to be remembered thjit. work at the institution had 'doubled and,' trebled, and the' strength of the nursing staff had remained the same. She continued: "It has been found necessary to make it the rule that nurses shall not go out beyoiid the penny tram section, and m that radius and m the institution itself they find that they • have really more work than they can do. Particularly the case mentioned at Kingsland was one m which the matron had informed the woman that the nurses were so busy that it was only m cases of emergency that they would go beyond the penny tram limit, and the woman ,had replied that her husband was trying to get a house m the city itself. " This woman had previously been confined m St. Helen's Hospital, and had not paid the fees due— although that fact had not been allowed to count against '-her on this occasion,