A review of hospital and related services in New Zealand.

  • New Zealand. Department of Health.
Date:
1969
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A review of hospital and related services in New Zealand. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    15/196 (page 13)
    Registration Act 1904 the day of the dirty, ignorant, careless woman, who has brought death or ill health to many mothers and infants, will soon end. After 1907 every woman who undertakes the responsibilities of a midwife will have to show that she is competent to do so. This will necessarily limit the number of women who can be found in a district to attend a case of labour at a low charge. To meet this difficulty St Helens Hospitals have been established in each of the four centres where the wives of working men can obtain, at a fixed charge, care and attend- ance during childbirth. The success already met with in these hospitals testified to the need for them’’. 17. During the next two decades attention was given to the problem of puerperal sepsis, the principal cause of the high maternal death rate. In 1924 an Inspector of Maternity Hospitals and a consultant obstetrician were appointed, a programme of antenatal care was started in the putlic hospitals, aseptic techniques introduced, a system of treatment established in public hospitals for abnormal births, and inspection of private hospitals arranged. In 1925 the passing of the Nurses and Midwives Act laid down a sound basis for the training and practice of midwifery and maternity nursing. The publicity given to these successive steps to improve maternity hospitals and the formation of the Obstetrical Society of the New Zealand Branch of the British Medical Association created community interest, and the women of the country raised funds to endow a chair of obstetrics at the University in Otago. 18. An Amendment to the Health Act in 1932 made the Hospital Boards responsible for providing maternity services for the indigent and four years later attention was drawn to the need for small obstetric units, specially staffed and equipped for obstetric emergencies, which were up to this time treated in surgical departments of the hospitals. 19. Over these early years the trend away from home confinements to Hospital obstetrics showed rapid development. By 1927 58.5 percent of infants were born in hospital and 11 years later 87.32 percent and by the 1960s it had risen to over 99 percent. A little over 50 percent of these confinements in 1938 were in private maternity hospitals, but in the following decade these hospitals faced financial problems and there was a gradual reversion to public hospital control so that by 1950 only 26.7 percent of confinements were in private hospitals. Following a Committee of Inquiry into the reasons for closure of private hospitals set up in 1950 by the Minister of Health, the introduction of a subsidy system and of Government loans for building, improved the situation. 20. There was concern at this period about the number of available maternity beds for the growing population. Between 1942 and 1952 the percentage of confinements taking place in hospitals had increased to 95 percent, but the number of beds only increased from 2,075 (1 to 15.4 confinements) to 2,423 (1 to 20.4 confinements). Increased Hos- pital and Maternity Benefits reversed this situation to some extent by 1954, and 300 additional private maternity beds were planned. The number of maternity beds available per 1,000 women of child-bearing age (15-45 years) rose gradually between the years 1945-1959, flattened out in the next 3 years, and has shown a decrease since 1962 in accordance with the fall in birth rate. 21. The proportion of private hospital confinements, however, dropped in successive years and by the early 1960s they represented only 14.4 percent. St Helens Hospitals dealt with 5.7 percent and the public hospitals