NORTH CANTERBURY HOSPITAL BOARD

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21420, 12 March 1935, Page 7

NORTH CANTERBURY HOSPITAL BOARD

TO THE KWI OB OK nib PR|v, Sir, —In a short space of time we will be electing the above board for a new term of office, and perhaps these few remarks might do a little to shape the policy of some old members who might be returned and of some of the new ones who are sure to be returned. The old board has made manv blunders and also done some goocf work; I-ut I cannot say that adding another £IO,OOO on to the cost of the palatial Nurses' Home was a very bright piece of business, considering the great depression that New Zealand was passing through at the time. Another kind of little wonder has been assailing me | lately, and that is the self-interest I complex. To illustrate my meaning, would any publicans or brewers be allowed to sit on a licensing bench? Would a couple of plumbers be allowed to sit on the Drainage Board 7 Well, my puzzle is why are two medical men allowed to sit on (of all boards) a hospital board, as, if not interested directly, they are interested indirectly in one of the closest corporations that we have in the British Empire, the British Medical Association. I maintain that doctors ought to let iheir .nidgment keep them off a hospital board, where the members of the board might have to sit in judgment on members of ( the profession at any time. I maintain on a board like this new blood is very stimulating to efficiency and is badly needed. Too many of the members have been on the board for years. As a matter of fact, they tend to stagnate and retard progress in many ways. New Zealand is very much in need of an increase of population, and yet we had the spectacle, a few months ago, of the board advertising for an assistant medical officer at £4OO a year and—mark this--"without encumbrance." Well, this speaks for itself. Another aspect of the work of this board is that many of its staff are a Jong way past the retiring age. Why is this, when every year more and more cannot get positions? No wonder we have an unemployed problem! Mr W. J. Walter has given notice of motion to restore part of the cut in salary that was imposed. Well, that would be only common decency, for it is said that the lower-paid employees are the worst paid in New Zealand. The disgraceful and paltry cut of sixpence a week, which was imposed on the poor old men at the Ashburton Home, should also be restored. From what I have been able to learn, this was the only place in New Zealand where a board penalised the old people in such a way. I would like, last, to touch on another subject, and that is the fact that board members never address the electors at election time. Those who will be standing for election as new members could well make a careful note of this and perhaps some of the old members would like to tell the electors a little about their stewardship for the last few years.—Yours, etc., BULLSEYE. March 7, 1935. [When this letter was shown to Mr W. S. Wharton, secretary to the North Canterbury Hospital Board, he said that the £IO,OOO referred to was used largely for special piling in the front part of the Nurses' Home, while a large sum had been spent on earthquake provisions, in accordance with the Government's decision after the Napier earthquake. The recent hospital boards' conference in Napier, he said, had decided not to make any bar on medical men becoming members of a board, and had actually advised it. After all, said Mr Wharton, they were only exercising their rights as citizens. A single medical officer'

had been advertised for in preference to a married man, he said, merely because the accommodation available was not suitable for a married man. Commenting on the statement that "many of its staff are past the retiring age," Mr Wharton said that some members of the staff had passed the retiring age of 65. The matter was reviewed, and their services continued yearly, but in no instance had any member of the staff sought the continuance of his services himself after he had reached th 1 retiring age. The reduced allowance to the old men in the home at Ashburton (from 2s 6d to 2s) had been necessary for economy, and the inmates were now placed in the same category as old-age pensioners. Whether members addressed the electors at election time, said Mr Wharton, rested entirely with the individuals themselves.] I .