TE WHAITI PATIENTS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 75, 16 October 1939, Page 5

TE WHAITI PATIENTS

CONDITIONS AT ROTORUA VIEWS OF BOARD MEMBERS Criticism of certain aspects of hospital work in Rotorua, and relerenee to the problem created by the admission of patients from the le Whaiti district, came when ti.e Waikato Hospital Board met in Hamilton at llie end of the week, and Mr J. Banks introduced the subject of the Rotorua Hospital site.

Mr Banks said that residents of Te Whaiti, Including many Maoris, were coming into the Rotorua Hospital. This area was in the Whakatane County. The conditions at the hospital were very congested and the position was acute. It was a question whether patients from another hospital district should be admitted. He wanted to know when the question of the lease would lie settled and steps taken to increase the accommodation. The chairman, Mr F. Findlay: There is a war on, and the Minister of Health is leaving for England,

Mr J. Price said that the board could not refuse patients from another district. A portion of a county could not be incorporated in a hospital district, and the only thing; that could V»e done would be to have the whole of the Whakatane county includ ed in the Waikato Hospital Board's district or in the Rotorua county. There was nothing the board coii'd do to remedy the conditions at the Rotorua Hospital' until the lonsn of the land on which the institution stood was transferred to the board. Mayor Attacked. Mr D. 13. Livingstone admired the way in which the staff was carrying on, but he l'clt that the people of Rotorua and particularly the Mayor, Mr T. Jackson, were to blame for the position which had arisen. Even at the last conference Mr Jackson had said Ihat. lie would not allow the board to have a lease fn.i.i Die Cn wn because the council's revenue would be affected and a burden cast on the ratepayers. He wanted the board to hold the lease from the borough council. If the people of Rotorua were conversant with the position he was sure that they would have had a new mayor before this. Rotorua was being penalised because of the attitude of Mr jackson.

MAYOR RETICENT ROTORUA, Sunday. Reticence was displayed by the Mayor, Mr T. Jackson, when, interviewed regarding the outburst by a member of the Waikato Hospital Board, when it was stated by Mr D. B. Livingstone, that the Mayor was to blame for the position which had arisen over the Rotorua hospital. "I think that everyone in Rotorua knows the true position. The member of the Hospital Board was obviously not familiar with the facts/' '.vas the only comment that Mr Jackson would make.