The Mustard Seed

Some might find it surprising just how many Canadians do not support public health care or at least that which is government funded. Even liberal Toronto’s literary unrequited lover Alice Munro made implicit remarks in a 1994 Paris Review lamenting the sad effect this country’s welfare state has had on Canadian mentality. Libertarians and theo-cons hungry for the blood of Marci McDonald alike can find inspiration from the tale of this Catholic and privately funded public hospital in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

 

This book is primarily sourced from a document titled St. Clare’s Mercy Hospital, 1922—1982 by Sr. M. Fabian Hennebury. The book will be interesting to general residents of St. John’s and Newfoundland with an interest in healthcare’s local history. The story of these nurses and this private hospital is a remarkable one and those who find fault in the effects of socialized medicine and centralized government in Canada hould also take an interest in its events, such as the aborted career of Sr. M. Loretta who could no longer work as an anesthetist in the hospital—though trained for it and in that role for twenty years—because Canada did not recognize nurse anesthetists.

 

There do seem to be some chronological and causal disparities in the book however. For example, in 1835 it is suggested that an outburst of smallpox leads Bishop Michael Fleming, head of the Roman Catholic Church in Newfoundland to the desire to found a school to better educate girls and thus make healthier futures for them. The problem is that a few lines later it is noted the school was founded in 1833, two years prior. There are other temporal issues as well. For example, chapter two partially addresses the time after the second word war; chapter three, the time before. The book doesn’t always have a clear narrative arc, though the word “story” on the cover suggests it should.

 

The book is so favourable to its subject that it may have spent just a bit more time on mistakes made. For example, one page briefly mentions major and long lasting leaks in a seven-story extension to the hospital, but not when this occurred or whose fault it was. In sum, the book presents a glowing and excited description of the hospital, its history and the people who made that history. —Michael Follow