Health Department Concerned Over Big Hospital Plans

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 16, Issue 4, 6 October 1950, Page 4

Health Department Concerned Over Big Hospital Plans

The capital expenditure of hospital boards is under review by the Department of Health. In the annual report of the department, the director of the hospitals division, Dr C. A. Taylor, says the increasing expenditure on public hospitals is of particular concern. Sketch plans are being prepared ror £4,000,000 worth of hospital buildings, and another 4,500,000 is involved in other hospital construction for which drawings are being prepared. The list of proposals for which consent has been obtained is growing steadily, Dr Taylor says. For, 1949-50 buildings approved involved about £1,400,000, and in addition there is a list of projects involving about £2O million —some of them absolutely essential, and most of them unquestionably desirable but impossible of completioin for many years.

The expenditure of £8,500,000 a year for maintenance, and £1 million for the capital purposes of hospitals, represents a heavy demand on a relatively small population, he adds. The department has now embarked on a survey of the activities of all hospitals to differentiate between what is essential and urgent, and what might be described as “ideal.”