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sisters by one. It has been the practice at the Government Civil Hospital to permit Sisters on duty in general wards to do duty in the maternity ward. This is distinctly undesirable and not
in accordance with modern practice and I am strongly of opinion, in which the Principal Civil Medical Officer agrees, that it is necessary to provide a separate nursing staff for the Maternity Hospital. As no other nurses are available for the purpose it
is necessary to engage two Sisters for the work.
The present staff consists of fifteen sisters
3.
distributed as follows:-
At the Goverment Civil Hospital
8
At the Kennedy Town Hospital
2
At the Victoria Hospital
Private Nursing Staff
3
2
:
With the three sisters for whom I an asking added the total
number of sisters will be eighteen of whom it may reasonably be
calculated one-sixth and sometimes one-fifth will be absent at
a time on leave or through illness. The Private Nurses are, how-
ever,
employed in private nursing on the average only for nine
months of the year, and the two sisters borne on the Estimates
for Kennedy Town Hospital are only required there for six months
of the year. It will be seen, therefore, that even with the
assistance of the Private Nursing Sisters and the Sisters for
the Kennedy Town Hospital the addition to the staff I have
recommended will not provide entirely for absences on leave and
for sickness.
4.
I am desirous, therefore, of making the appoint-
ment of probationers more attractive and I propose to increase their salaries to $600 rising to $720 per annum but to reduce
their number from seven to three. It is I find impossible in
this Colony to obtain many suitable young women for Probationers.
At present there are five vacancies in this class and I do not
think it will be possible to find more than three for employment
T