WAIPIATA SANATORIUM

Southland Times, Issue 24338, 20 January 1941, Page 2

WAIPIATA SANATORIUM

To The Editor Sir,—No doubt there are many who have been interested in the letters which for some time back have been appearing in the columns of The Southland Times about conditions at Waipiata. I am not personally acquainted with, and I have never seen, Waipiata Sanatorium. Fortunately, I am thankful to say, none of my relations has had to avail himself of the services of that institution. However, we must take notice of at least some of the statements made, because they have not been satisfactorily replied to or contradicted. I am not by any means in agreement with your method of referring correspondence to the interested party to express his opinion. I presume the columns of the Press arc available to both sides; let the other side reply through the Press, not through the mouth or by the pen of the editor. With reference to the conditions prevailing at Waipiata, wo know there must be many who have been patients there who could speak from personal knowledge, yet it is noticeable that there has been no contradiction. It is also a fact that all I have come in contact with who have been there as patients speak in the highest terms of praise and appreciation of the treatment they received from the medical staff and nurses. A friend ot mine, through overseas service for his country and service to his home town, was compelled to give up his work and spend some considerable time there. I inquired of him if he had noticed the correspondence of late in The Southland Times. With a laugh he replied, “Oh yes. I carried my spoon in my vest pocket. If no spoon, use your knife handle.” He told me many other things which were astonishing, and that man’s word stands. He is not a fifth columnist by any means. So far as I know I am not acquainted with any of the correspondents on this subject, but from what. I have read and heard there seems to be something wrong, both outside and inside, which should be investigated. If this is not the case the chairman should have no trouble in bringing facts to light that will remove the gross injustice to the institution he represents. Unless this is done it would seem that more than a shadow will remain on some of the departments of Waipiata Sanatorium. —Yours, etc., N. ROBSON. Gore, January 14, 1941. To The Editor Sir,—lt is with great interest that I have read the letters in your paper about Waipiata Sanatorium. Will you kindly grant me some space to add a word on behalf of the staff. Here we have a staff of about 50. It includes nurses, housemaids and porters. The nurses here have a 48-hour week and they are supposed to have one day off each week. At the present time the nurses consider themselves very lucky if they get one day off in every three weeks. Apart from this it is nothing to see the morning duty nurses, who should come off duty at 2 o’clock, leaving the dormitories any time between a-quarter to and a-quarter past three. The housemaids here are all union members under a 40-hour week, but not I one of the 13 of them has worked less than 44 hours a week over the last six j or seven months Now for the male staff. We have | three laundrymen, four porters, two en- | gineers, a butcher, two gardeners, a j green keeper, and a labourer. All these j men are on a 44-hour week, but the j average for these men is between 48 ; and 54 hours a week. It is quite common for the porters here to work half a day on their day off. The engineers are on call any hour of the day or night. At present, the engineer is away on his • annual holiday and his assistant is j working on his own. Owing to the exceptionally dry spell we are very short of water and this boy (a youth of 18) has, after finishing at 5 o’clock (?) to hang around till 11 o’clock to turn the electric power off in order to conserve the water supply. Then he has to get I out of his bed at 5.30 a.m. in order to put the power on again and by the time he finishes at the powerhouse it is not worth his while going back to bed. Now to conic to the point of this j letter. An examination of the wages j book here will show that not one penny ! has been paid out in overtime over the I last. 12 months, and furthermore, it is ] highly improbable that any will be paid j out in the next 12 months. A short time | ago we were magnificently granted a 5 I per cent, rise in salary by the board. At the same time it decided, owing to the increased cost of foodstuffs to increase our board from 15/- to 22/6 a week. Now, sir, for 22/6 a week we get i the worst meals possible. We have had | chops for breakfast in the morning and | the same day we have had these chops I sent along to us as cold meat for tea. Yesterday we had cold meat for dinner | and there were maggots on several [ plates. When we send along to the kitchen for more food it is given us with bad grace. If, through some mischance we have bacon and eggs, we are given only one egg and two slices of bacon. And this to feed a grown man! Yet the board wonders why it is only with the greatest difficulty that it can get staff to work at this place. Let Mr Golden call me a fifth columnist or anything else he likes, but [ can prove every word that is written here. Perhaps things might improve if we had some youth on the board as it makes us feel tired to see elderly men walking round the place with their ?yes shut. I certainly agree with Mr Solden that this place is economically run. A child of 10 could run this in-

i stitution better than the board we have ;at present. We have several qualified tradesmen here, but whenever there is a big job to be done, labour is always imported. After all, this is no credit to the workmanship of the staff.—Yours, ■ etc.. ONE OF THE MUGS. Orangapai, Waipiata, January 10, 1941. [These letters were referred to Mr Ernest Macdonald, chairman of the Waipiata Sanatorium Committee, who has written as follows: “A reply to the I various allegations will be forthcoming, but, without, a special visit to the institution for inquiry purposes, that reply cannot be made at the moment. But the committee will meet at the sanatorium in the last week of this j month, when the matters discussed by i your correspondents will be fully coverI ed. Comment at this moment I do [ not care to make. I do not sec the Southland Press, and this is the first ■ intimation I have received that there | has been adverse criticism of the ad- | ministration, or the matters referred to would have been investigated before now.”] ! I j I ;