NAPIER HOSPITAL

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13833, 19 February 1909, Page 5

NAPIER HOSPITAL

Per Press Association. NAPIER, Feb. 18. A meeting. of the Napier Hospital Trustees > was held to-day to meet Dr Valintine, Inspector-General of Hospitals. , . Dr Valintine said he had been living at the hospital for the past week and he found that the buildings were insanitary and in disrepair. The interior did not show that scrupulous cleanliness which should prevail and the wards w,ere not clean. The place was overcrowded and the grounds untidy and insanitary. He found a _ lack of harmony between the administration officers, due to outside interference arid a want of definiteness in regard to duties. Notwithstanding all the drawbacks the patients had been well cared for, but 67 were too much for one man. The economics side of the hospital had been neglected and mismanagement was rife. Out of 19 nurses, only two were trained nurses, but there was not that absolute disloyalty to the. matron as some people" endeavoured to make out, as was shown by the fact that the four senior nurses had offered to stay on if required after they had passed their examinations. The hospital books did not contain enough information, but this was due to the secretary bc' n S overworked, and lie recommended the appointment of an extra medical officer at £2OO per annum, and additional help for the secretary. The matron (Miss Florence Edwards) forwarded her resignation. Mr AV. Shrimptori gave, £IOOO towards the erection of a new children s ward in memory of his son. ,