HOSPITAL LOAN

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 19, 29 October 1943, Page 5

HOSPITAL LOAN

MINISTER'S REPLY TO COUNCIL OBJECTION TO LEVY SYSTEM In acknowledging receipt of the Whakatane County Council's petition from ratepayers of the Bay of Plenty Hospital district in connection with the proposed loan of £45,000, the t Minister of Health, Hon. A. H. Nordmeyer, states: - It is noted Hint the petitioners seek the abolition of levies by Hospital Boards upon local authorities, and urge that all hospital costs be made a charge on the. Social Security Fund, and/or the Consolidated Fund or other Government revenues. I regret, to have to advise that 1 cannot support .such an alteration in the basis of finance lor Hospital Boards. Continuing, he statesi that an examination of the position in the Ray of Plenty Hospital Board shows that although hospital maintenance expenditure has increased very considerably over the past four or live years, this is due almost as much to rising costs, as to an expansion in the services. Over the same period, however, receipts by way of patients' fees, have risen from £3(191 in 1988-39 to an estimated total for this year of £13,100,, the greater part of 'which is provided out of the Social Security Fund. Payments from the Social Security Fund have, it appears, exceeded the increased expenditure attributable to the expansion of the services. -With regard to the second request contained in the petition, namely, that the Bay of Plenty Hospital Board's loan proposal for the amount of £4.5,000 should be submitted to a poll of ratepayers, he states. I, desire to point out that existing provisions governing Hospital Board borrowing ensure that local authorities and others have an opportunity of lodging any objection they may have to the loan proposals of a Hospital Board,, which require the sanction of both the Local Government Loans Board and of the Minister of Health. It should also be mentioned that a large part of the loan charges in the case of hospital board loans, is borne out of central Government funds, in the circumstances I cannot support the request that such loan proposals should be subject to a poll of ratepayers. Sequel to Board's! Letter The much discussed letter forwarded by the Finance Committee of the Hospital Board to the Loans Board was also before the meeting, and being a very lengthy document was perused by members at will. The following motion was carried in accordance with the recommendation of the Finance Committee: — "That the Local Government Loans Board be advised that three ratepayers" meetings were held in central localities at which opposition to the Bay of Plenty Hospital Board's loan proposals was emphatically expressed—that petitions were circulatedl after such meetings, and! had benzine for transport been available, this Council contends that such petitions would' have been jsigned by an overwhelming majority of the Whakatane County ratepayers — that this Council could contest the accuracy of some of the statements made in the Bay of Plenty Hospital Board's letter of the 27th August 1943, to the 1 Local Government Loans Board, but feels that any such action on its part would be futile —that the Whakatane County Council is emphatic that all its ratepayers are opposed to the present basis of hospital finance."