The Bell Tolls

It was a handbell, just like the ones the schools used to use to ring lunchtime or at the end of the schoolday. This one was smaller, lighter, but just as well made and rang with a good tone.

It sat on my windowsill by my big armchair, where I was recovering from surgery on the third floor of the new hospital building. I could see a view of Mt Taranaki from the chair, but I couldn't reach the electric bell, so the nurses had found the handbell somewhere and brought it instead. I had insisted I wanted to see the view, rather than be closer to the bell button.

On the bell itself was a label which read: Property of TDHB Ward 4. The handle was well worn. I soon recognised it as one that had stood on the desk of the Charge Nurse of the old Ward 4 (Orthopaedic) in the eighties, when Patricia Woods was in charge. If my memory is correct it had been donated by a grateful patient.

So I told the nurses all this, and they looked at me slightly bemused; "why would a ward need a ward bell?"

My mind wandered back to those days. In 1988 the then Minister of Health, Helen Clark, had asked everyone to think about replacing Hospital Boards and some Health Department services by what were to be called "Area Health Boards". The aim was to make the health service more aware of preventive and community measures, rather than focussing solely on hospitals.

So the Hospital Boards set up Community Advisory Committees to consider the possible future shape of the new structures. I was asked, as a community worker at Social Welfare, to be a member of the Taranaki Hospital Board's committee, along with about 20 others, including several members of the Hospital Board, one of whom was Patricia Woods.

The committee was chaired by Dan Holmes, the THB chair, and advised by the Board's three top staff members, John Eady, Peter Matthews and Janice Wenn. Other community members included Simon Shera from Hawera. We duly thought about the questions the ministry had set us. A year or so later the Area Health Boards were set up.

A week after I left my picture window and the old handbell behind, the penny dropped. Every ward on those days needed a bell to ring the end of visiting time. Visiting was from 2 to 4 in the afternoon, say, and at 4 pm one of the nurses would ring the handbell to tell the visitors politely it was time to say Good bye.

No wonder the handle looked worn; it had been used every day for years.