CO129-411 - Governor Sir May - 1914 [5-7] — Page 218

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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