Lax Hospital Discipline

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXII, Issue 289, 21 November 1928, Page 8

Lax Hospital Discipline

AUCKLAND NURSE IN TROUBLE

SAID MATRON HAS “GONE SOFT”

(Press Association)]

AUCKLAND, Last Night.

The case of Nurse E. A. Blackie, who was dismissed from the hospital staff by a special committee appointed by the Auckland Hospital Board for sending a letter to a prisoner at Mount Eden gaol who had been a patient and in which was an indiscreet reference to the lady superintendent, was again considered by the Board to-day. After a somewhat heated discussion lasting an hour it was decided that the nurse should appear before the Board at a special meeting next Mondhy so that the Board might hear what she had to say in defence.

In a letter to the Board the nurse said: “I think that to have my character and my careci' destroyed and to be dismissed ata moment’s notice is too severe a punishment for what I have done.”

Mr M. Laing, a member of the Board, said he did not think it was the Board’s business to whom the girl wrote as long as she did her work. In his opinion she should only have been punished for being out late.

The chairman (Mr W. ’Wallace) said all the nurses were in the habit of coming in late. Discipline must be maintained. Miss Blackie said in her letter that the matron was “going soft.” A member: Perhaps she meant soft hearted (laughter). The chairman added that the nurses were actually getting in through the maids’ quarters and climbing over theii' beds. If they allowed this is would be the end of discipline.

Regarding the statement of Miss Blackie that she had been dismissed without her wages, the chairman said these had not been collected by her and were waiting for her. The resolution to hear nurse was then carried.