HOSPITAL PATIENTS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19130, 26 September 1936, Page 15

HOSPITAL PATIENTS

STAFF MODE OF ADDRESS CHANGE RECOMMENDED COOK BOARD. INITIATIVE .The lead given by the Cook Hospital Board", in the direction of removing a source of long-standing complaint upon the part of some patients by requiring the staff members to address all inmates of the hospital by their correct title, is already being followed in various parts of New Zealand. Several hospital authorities have instructed their staffs to refrain from addressing male patients by their surnames only, as has been the "almost universal custom in public instiuutions in the past. There is, moreover, a strong likelihood that the reform" will become general throughout the hospitals of the. dominion, 1o"r the executive committee of the Hospital Boards' Association, in a recent circular letter, advised that a remit from the Cook board asking for reform in this matter had been referred to (the next annual conference, with' a strong recommeifclatiejn iron? the executive. The Cook board first took action on the proposal of Mrs. A. K. Beer, its only woman mem)>er, who held that it was undignified for men of mature years. in particular to be addressed merely by their surnames, by women and girls employed by the board. When Mrs. Beer first raised the question, the matter was not treated with great (seriousness by some board membei's, \yho held that a custom so hallowed by time hardly could give offence even to patients who thought highly of their dignity in other matters. WIDE INTEREST AROUSED The matter was referred to the executive of the association in the form, of a remit, however, and in the meantime much interest was shown by newspaper readers in other districts, as well as in Poverty Bay. The Issue began,, to figure as, something more than a mutter of passing- mention. Recently Mrs. Beer returned to the attack, and succeeded in' moving the. board to anticipate the decision of the conference, by " giving instructions to its own staff'to address male patients by suitable titles. It is now stated that so" far from taking exception to the change, most of the staff rnemliers have welcomed it. While the board' was primarily concerned with the patients' angle of the issue, the feminine staff 'had its own viewpoint, which was not altogether'favourable to the practice ot roqniring girls of almost tender years to address the most worthy and dignified male patient by his surname alone. The strong recommendation given to the remit by the Hospitals Association s executive, may' be expected to weigh strongly in favour of general adoption of the'projected change.