ST. HELEN’S HOSPITALS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 73, Issue 6283, 20 September 1946, Page 6

ST. HELEN’S HOSPITALS

QUALITY AND DEGREE 1 OF ATTENTION It was not correct to say that' in all cases dealt with in private maternity hospitals and public hospital maternity annexes a medical practitioner was invariably in attendance, said the Minister of Health (Mr Nordmeyer), replying, in the House of Representatives, to Mrs Ross (National, Hamilton), who asked whether it was a fact that a medical practitioner was in attendance during the period of accouchment in only comparatively few maternity cases dealt with in established St. Helens hospitals. “St. Helens hospitals are the training school for midwives, and it is considered that the necessary high standard of obstetrical care and teaching could not be assured if patients were permitted to have their own practitioners in attendance,” said the Minister. “All patients of existing St. Helens hospitals are examined antenatally by obstetricians,” continued the Minister, “and wherever it appears advisable, owing to a known or suspected abnormality, an obstetrician attends at the confinement. The staff of obstetric specialists is also on call for any emergency that arises. The excellent record of St. Helens institutions is in itself a refutation of the suggestion that the service given in these hospitals is in any way inferior to that available elsewhere. The policy of the Government is to staff the St. Helens hospitals with the most highly qualified obstetric specialists. When the new hospitals are completed, it is intended that a doctor will be available at all hours of the day and night and will be in attendance at all confinements.” Discussing- the Minister's reply, Mrs Ross said that the women of the country were concerned as to where they could go to get attention. There was an increasing tendency for maternity hospitals to be established in conjunction with public hospitals. She had nothing of a disparaging nature to say about St. Helens hospitals, because she thought they were excellent institutions, but mothers had a right, if they wished, to have doctors present during confinement and to have the advantages of all the latest developments of science. When mothers j found out that they were not entitled to have the medical man they wished during confinements, and that they were not allowed to have all the latest scientific advantages during confinement, they would be greatly distressed. The mothers should have the right to have doctors in attendance. If the population was to be increased, every facility should be given to the prospective mother, who should have every trust in the services provided in maternity hospitals. The mothers should have the people they wanted assisting them, and not merely the people some Government department considered they should have.