DUTY FOOTWEAR FOR NURSES

Southland Times, Issue 25334, 10 April 1944, Page 2

DUTY FOOTWEAR FOR NURSES

MINISTER EXPLAINS POSITION (P.A.) WELLINGTON, April 8. The Minister of Supply, the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, stated that his attention had been directed to a recent article appearing in newspapers in which the Government had been blamed for, delay in rectifying the alleged longstanding and acutely serious position regarding nurses’ duty footwear. “In order that the public generally and nurses in particular may be aware of the true position,” said Mr Sullivan, “I wish to state the circumstances under which a Government undertaking was given to provide suitable nurses’ footwear and the actual reasons why I have been unable to procure this on their behalf up to the present time. “In March 1943 I was approached by the New Zealand Registered Nurses’ Association, who made representations concerning the unsatisfactory wearing capacity and supply of nurses’ shoes. I immediately made arrangements to have a complete survey made throughout New Zealand to ascertain the true position. The result of this survey con-, vinced me that some action should be taken, but the position was difficult, as all the evidence pointed to the necessity of setting up an organization which would fit' and supply the nurses with correctly fitting footwear. Unfortunately no organization, apart from the Footwear Fitting Division, which fitted and supplied shoes for women in the armed forces, was available and it was necessary to confer at some length with the manufacturers and retailers and convince them that some very definite action would have to be taken to rectify tbe position. “Some misapprehension on the part of various parties had to be cleared up and it was not until comparatively recently that my officers could be directed to proceed with production and distribution. Owing to the New Zealand footwear factories being already heavily committed to a programme of military and civilian footwear production and to this being a new production line and to the difficulties of supplies of leather and footwear accessories my officers • have found it impossible to reach finalization. The extent and nature of these difficulties'may not be fully appreciated, but I must emphasize that they have been definitely unavoidable. On humanitarian grounds alone I have been very much in favour of the scheme and having regard to the circumstances, I consider that if all • the facts had been known the criticism would not have been made. It is a matter of regret to me that the scheme was not put into operation some time ago. I have been, and am, making every endeavour to speed up production and distribution, which is anticipated to begin about the middle of July next.”