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129
At the present time there is a vacancy for one sister and two
staff nurses, and, in addition, another staff nurse is off duty through
illness and is likely to be away for some time.
During the last three years the nursing staff has for lengthy
periods been below strength and this has necessitated the requisition
of private nurses at considerable expense to the Council.
Moreover, the Committee will realise that this frequent change of
staff is not conducive to efficiency and that the private nurses
employed are in many cases unable to take the full duties of the
permanent staff, e.g., they are unable to take personal responsibility
for deliveries unless they have actually notified their intention to
practise midwifery to the local supervising authority. Thus the
responsibilities falling upon the remainder of the permanent staff
are increased.

The Committee will remember that in 1936 the hospital was
closed for a period of ten weeks and arrangements were made
whereby patients who had booked for admission during this period
were admitted to other institutions. The necessity for the closure
and the consequent considerable expense to the Council were very
largely due to the shortage of staff.
In order to illustrate the difficulty of securing nursing staff I
should like to draw the attention of the Committee to the following
facts.
In April, 1936, advertisements were issued in the usual papers
for the appointment of staff nurse. Those advertisements were
repeated in May and June without producing a single response.
The appointment was re-advertised on two occasions in July at an
increased salary and four applications were received.
In June, 1937, a further vacancy arose and no response was
received until the advertisement had been issued four times when
there were only two applicants.
During this year the experience has been similar. Advertisements
issued in June were unanswered. On re-issue two applications
were received, but the applicants were unsuitable and were