850 Hospital Beds Reported Closed By Shortage Of Staff
Because of acute staff shortages, particularly among nurses, about 850 beds in public hospitals throughout the Dominion are closed to patients. Dr C. A. Taylor, director of the hospitals division of the Health Department, says in his annual report that this factor must be considered in comparing the 16,624 hospital beds of 1949 with the 12,504 beds in 1930-40.
In 10 years, he continued, the number of general beds in private hospital's had risen only from 1722 to 1813 while accommodation for maternity cases in private establishments had dropped from 1043 to 675. Dr Taylor stated that the competition of entirely free treatment in public hospitals, rising wage rates, higher prices and inability to make their case for increased fees had forced many licencees to give up.
Dr Taylor also said that there was difficulty in obtaining physiotherapists, and in certain types of medical specialists the shortage was most marked. In particular, radiologists and pathologists were scarce.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BPB19501004.2.46
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 16, Issue 4, 4 October 1950, Page 6
Word count
Tapeke kupu
166850 Hospital Beds Reported Closed By Shortage Of Staff Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 16, Issue 4, 4 October 1950, Page 6
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Beacon Printing and Publishing Company is the copyright owner for the Bay of Plenty Beacon. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Beacon Printing and Publishing Company. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in