HOSPITAL COMMISSION.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17121, 16 April 1921, Page 10

HOSPITAL COMMISSION.

YE STEEDAYv'S EVIDENCE. (FIUCSS ASSOCIATION TCUGBUt.) ' WELLINGTON, April 15. Giving evidence before the Hospital Commission to-day, on tho question o£ control, E. Killick, secretory of the Health Department, strongly supported the present system as against tho nationalisation proposal. The present! system gave full representation to ratepayers. Under nationalisation them would be no check upon the clamour for canitnl expenditure, which would arise i? all moneys came from tlw Consolidated Fund. He urged that capital expenditure should not be repaid over such long periods as was now the case, because of the great burden of interest. Boards should not undcrtako works which could not be liquidated in. nay, ten years v The Government should extend the Advantages of tho State Advances Office to nospi,tal boards, immediately Uhe finances of tho Government permitted. » Dr. Truby King, Government Director of Child Welfare, traced the history and operations of Karitane hospitals, and said the Plunket Society would strongly object to being brought'under tho control of the hospital boards in the various districts. Ho thought Jfivo your* from now tlbie Society would need nearly 100 nurses. The Society was asking for a total subsidy of £IO,OOO nest year. ' Sir James Wilson, choirthan of tho Palmeißton North Hospital Board, stated that his Board collected 49 p«r cent, of patients' fees, against an aver* ago of 22 per cent. Wlion o patient icame in, his money was put in a «fo, and when the patient was leaving ho was asked :ho\v mutfh ho was going to 1 pay for maintenance in the hospitu. Tho good peroentag© of fcos collected last year might be duo to the faet that) a .good many patients were soldiers, for whom the Defence Department paid.