St. Helens Hospital, Wellington

Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume III, Issue 3, 1 July 1910, Page 122

St. Helens Hospital, Wellington

The many nurses who have gone through their midwifery course in St. Helens Hospital, Wellington, will be interested to hear that at last there is prospect of having in the near future, a new and up-to-date building. A site has been secured by the Government, which will be ideal for the purpose of the hospital. Quite near the terminus of cne tram, it is within easy walking distance of two others, and yet, once inside the gates one might imagine oneself far from town anel slums. It is on the top of a gentle rise, which lies bathed in sunshine all day, but sheltered from the wind by a belt of fine pine trees. Here there is room for a hospital with about twice as many beds as at present, with modern, up-to-date requirements, labour room, nurseries, out-patients' rooms, wiele verandahs and balconies, and a garden. There is a house on the grounds, which is to be added to, and converteel into a comfortable nurses' home. For all this the plans carefully thought out and prepared, are now to be elaboiated by the Government Architect, specifications drawn up, and tenders called, and then the builders should get to work. Badly needed is this building. The work of providing during their confinements for the wives of the working men of the Wellington district has about trebled since the first year of the existence of this the first State Maternity Hospital in the Dominion, opened in 1905. In the house in Rintoul Street, rented and started as an experiment, only a few patients could be taken, and only four or five pupil nurses were taken for training. Now there are ten pupils in training at one time, and all are kept busy, for besides the fifteen patients who can be accommodated in the present house in Colombo Street, there are a large number of district cases. The district cases are invaluable as experience for the nurses after they have, indoors, completed a good part of their training. The nurses for the most part live in a house about three or four minutes from the Hospital, with the sub-matron in charge of them. The work is carried on at a great disadvantage in this rented building, and we long for the elay when we can move into our own hospital. Whether the results will be better,

who can say ! The statistics for the year, published in the annual report of the Hospitals and Charitable Aid Department, speak for themselves. What is said for vSt. Helens, Wellington can be said for each of the three other St. Helens Hospitals : In each the work has increased so rapidly that the necessity for building is imminent. The plans are nearly ready for building a new St. Helens, Christchurch, and the money has been authorised by Cabinet. The wish of the Government to assist the back-block settlers by training midwives to settle in their midst has been referred to in another column. Many applications are being received, and more accommodation for these would-be pupils is needed. Every term more trained nurses are coming forward to complete their education by this special course, and in the case of many, to fit themselves for the work of the back-blocks district nurse A monument to Mr. Seddon is now erected in the Cemetery, Wellington, anel shortly to be unveiled ; but the more practical and enduring monument to his value as a public benefactor lies under the roofs of these unpretending maternity hospitals he established to aid the working man, and help fill the cradles.