WOMEN’S HEALTH

Southland Times, Issue 23140, 5 March 1937, Page 8

WOMEN’S HEALTH

N.Z. MATERNITY SERVICES COMMITTEE SET UP TO MAKE INQUIRIES (United Press Association) WELLINGTON, March 4. The Minister of Health (the Hon. P. Fraser) announces that the committee set up in August last to inquire into the question of septic abortion in New Zealand has concluded its work and the .chairman Dr D. G. McMillan M.P. for Dunedin West, has placed the report in the hands of the Minister. It is expected that the report will be published shortly. The members of the committee are Dr McMillan and Doctors E. T. Corkhill, Sylvia Chapman, T. L. Paget and Mrs Fraser. The Government has decided to appoint members of the committee, with the addition of Mrs A. M. Hutchinson (Auckland) and Mrs N. G. Kent-Johnston (Christchurch) as a committee of inquiry into the maternity services of New Zealand, with the following order- of reference: — 1. To inquire generally into and report upon the matter affecting the maternity services of the Dominion and to put forward any relevant recommendation. 2. In particular to inquire into and report , , (a) Whether the maternity hospital services in the Dominion are adequate and efficient, in respect firstly of maternity hospitals and maternity wards established by hospital boards, secondly of maternity hospitals maintained by the Government and thirdly of private maternity hospitals. (b) Whether the ante-natal and post-natal services of the Dominion are adequate and, if not, in what respects they should be extended. (c) Whether organized district nursing services which afford a maternity service are adequate and satisfactory. (d) The extent to which anaesthetics are administered to women in childbirth in public maternity hospitals, and whether this procedure should be extended.

(e) Whether there should be a resident medical officer attached to the staff of larger public maternity hospitals. (f) Whether the maternity services provided for the Maori race are adequate and, if not, how they should be extended. (g) Whether the training of midwives and maternity nurses is satisfactory and adequate, and whether the numbers of persons who are being trained are sufficient for the needs of the Dominion.

The committee will be taking evidence in Wellington and other centres which will be announced later, and any persons or organizations desirous of giving evidence or submitting views are requested to communicate with the secretary of the committee, care of the Department of Health, Wellington. .