WOMEN’S WARD OVERCROWDED

Southland Times, Issue 25763, 29 August 1945, Page 4

WOMEN’S WARD OVERCROWDED

HOSPITAL PROBLEM IN NORTHERN WAIROA

(P.A.) DARGAVILLE, August 28. .“Patients who are dying are screened off by a flimsy screen. Other patients lie awake while they die with relations waiting round.” This statement was made by the medical superintendent, Dr G. A. Delautour, when amplifying his written report on the lack of accommodation at the Northern Wairoa Hospital, particularly in the women’s ward, to members of the Kaipara Hospital Board. Stating that he intended to draw the attention of the Director-General of Health to the conditions, the superintendent added that the situation concerning accommodation for women had become intolerable. The women’s ward was so overcrowded that patients could reach out and touch each other. Since the end of March there had been only three days on which the bed rate was below 50. “The average for the five months to date is 60 beds a day,” said Dr Delautour. “This means acute periods of overcrowding. This has been the case particularly in the women’s and children’s wards. At the same time there has been difficulty in obtaining staff, both domestic and nurses. Extra work has placed a great strain on the laundry and kitchen. The hospital has never been so busy for so long a period, and we have always been able to cope with short rush periods even by putting women and children in the men’s ward. This week, however, I was placed in a dilemma, having nowhere to put women who were actually in labour and who were suffering from an infectious disease and who could not be accommodated in the annex for that reason. The following day room had to be found for a child with typhoid fever, a woman requiring an urgent operation and another admission to the women’s ward, and the health inspector rang to ask if I could admit several cases of scarlet fever in the children’s ward.” VARIETY OF CASES The superintendent said that the staff were nursing an adult with scarlet fever, a child with typhoid fever, a mother with a baby, several bottle-fed babies and various medical and surgical child cases, and on top of that a nurse had to tramp to and fro from the T.B. shelters. It was gratifying to find that additions to the shelters were being proceeded with, otherwise the board would be faced with the position of having to discharge patients and close the shelters.

In the women’s ward, which had a capacity of only 15 beds, they had two stretchers up almost continuously for two months and there were seven beds occupied by chronic cases. There were no side rooms to nurse very ill cases; there was no signal system, no separate bed lighting and no adequate service rooms. The accommodation for women had become intolerable, and the only immediate prospect for relief would be to open the old women’s

home, but some permanent relief would have to be started because the staff simply could not carry on under these conditions. The Director-General of Health, Dr Delautour added, held the view that it was not a question of whether this district needed a new hospital, but how soon it could get one. Even then the Director-General was not aware of how acutely distressing the position was. Cases of scarlet fever and diphtheria might embarrass the board still further.

The question of extra accommodation was left in the hands of the chairman, Mr G. Stillworthy, the medical superintendent and the matron.