TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 1908. HOSPITAL MANAGEMENT.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13635, 14 April 1908, Page 4

TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 1908. HOSPITAL MANAGEMENT.

Fol* very many yfears the New Plymouth Hospital has had the reputation of being a model establishment, and we believe it has thoroughly deserved that reputation. From the time of the late M^. James JJellringer the hospital has had the good fortune to have at the head of its affairs men who have united with wide sympathy for suffering humanity good administrative capability. The members of tlie Board have almost invariably brought to the chairman's assistance a generous desire to do the right tiring in making the "hospital thoroughly efficient, never permitting motives of economy to interfere with the comfort and most approved treatment of patients. The Board has been fortunate in its chief medical officer, Dr. Leatham, who has . for long devoted the best part of his time to his duties there. It has been fortunate also in the rest of the medical staff, doctors who hold very high positions in their profession. As for the nursing staff, from the matron to the youngest

probationer, there is, we venture to say, no hospital in the Dominion where greater skill, care, and devotion to duty is shown than at the New Plymouth hospital. Year after year the official reports of the Government inspectors speak in the highest terms both of the medical and nursing staffs, and, what is more, public opinion throughout Taranaki endorses these reports. Why do patients come here from all parts of the province? Because their local doctors know that in this hospital they will get the most skilled treatment and attention possible, and because they know themselves from friends who have been inmates of the care and kindness with which patients are invariably treated. This being so, it is difficult to understand why, at the Board meeting yesterday, Messrs. Brown and Andrews, two of the members, should have permitted themselves to be made the mouthpiece of complaints which they ought to have known were unjustifiable or trivial, and in either case extremely unkind to the staff. Some of the complaints were so trivial

as to be unworthy of notice, but the reflections, upon the matron

arid nurses cannot be permitted to pass without comment. Mr. Brown brought forward a grievance that he had seen both the matron and the senior nurse away from the hospital together on pleasure bent ; also that six or seven nurses had been a.way at the same time; and that nurses had been about the town when they ought to be resting. Now the nurses have their stated regular hours of duty, their day being eight hours; can Mr. Brown possibly think that they ought to spend the other sixteen hours in bed, or that they ought not to come into the town during their spare time? The nursing staff numbers about sixteen ; is there anyi&ing unreasonable or improper in "six or seven" being absent from the hospital one afternoon? As for the matron and senior nurse being away together, that probably occurs very rarely, and we are quite sure that it would not occur at all if there were not a thoroughly competent nurse to leayg in charge for an hour or twoi or if there were any cases of a dangerous nature which demanded special attention. Otherwise we see no harm in the matron and chief nurse taking a drive together. More specific charges were those of a nurse sleeping when supposed to be on night duty, and of a patient being ordered chicken broth and not getting it for three days afterwards. The former incident occurred, we understand, four years ago, and the nurse left the staff. The chicken broth incident, if correctly reported, no doubt is capable of a simple and satisfactory explanation. It is incredible that it was due to neglect, though it might Wsify be that the patient's condition changed, making chicken broth undesirable. This brings us to the question of diet, one entirely for the doctor. The chief complaint was that tea for convalescents consists invariably of bread and butter, and Mr. Andrews thought they ought to get something more, because they don't get that sort of thing in their own homes. He forgets that they are in the hospital for medical or surgical treatment, and that the perhaps generous diet of their own homes, when they are well and taking plenty of exercise, would, be absolutely injurious when they are unable to tnke| much exercise. We have heard complaints before now of tlie bread and butter teas, and have regarded them as a sign that the patient is rapidly recovering. But a too early return to a full diet might easily cause a relapse. Speaking of the complaints generally we would say that the whole history of the hospital discredits them, and that the members of the Board voicing them should in future follow the advice of Mr. McDonald and decline to bring forward any complaint not put into writing. « ' The staff, from top to bottom, deserve more consideration and protection from the members of the Board. '"'