NURSES REFUTE DRUG CHARGE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19108, 28 June 1930, Page 11

NURSES REFUTE DRUG CHARGE.

DOCTORS DECLARE STATEMENT TO BE FALSE. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON. June 28. “The statement t»at the nursing profession as a whole is addicted to tbe drug habit is not going to be allowed to pass unchallenged. If it were not such a serious reflection on the morals of the whole profession we would not take any notice of it, but it is obviously a wicked exaggeration,” declared the matron of one hospital in Wellington. The nurses in Wellington, it is understood, are calling a protest meeting as soon as possible in order to combat the insidious suggestion. When approached on the matter the * Superintendent of the Wellington Hospital said that although the firing of drugs was not unknown, speaking with many years* experience of theboapitat and its nursing staff of about 250 nurses, the statement, as telegraphed from Gisborne, was grossly exaggerated. Medical opinion in Wellington seems fairly unanimous on the subject and characterises the Gisborne statement as absurd, or something worse. One doctor said: ”It is the irrespon - sible utterance of an over-zealous police officer.” He referred to the harm that such a statement, telegraphed as it had been al! over the Dominion, would do. even if flatly contradicted by authoritative quarters. Another doctor said that the first to know that thfc nurses under them were addicted to drugs would be the doctors themselves. The statement made at Gisborne was unadulterated nonsense. The statement is also ridiculed by druggists.

An earlier message appears on page 29.