HOSPITALS NOT TO BE NATIONALISED SAYS MINISTER

Chronicle (Levin), 25 September 1946, Page 7

HOSPITALS NOT TO BE NATIONALISED SAYS MINISTER

•Press Association t ' ..... I

^ t Parliament Discosses Tuberc ulosis Among Maoris — c r

By Telegrayh—

ocpt. -t. "The Governineni has no iuteution of uationalisiiig hospitals, " said Ilon. A. 11. Nordnieyer, wlien rep lying, to a question raised by Mr. J. Acland (Temuka), who spoke in the llouse today to tlie Health Department vote. The Minister added tliat witli the stabilisation of the hospital rate, there might be instances of increased hospital board cxpenditur.e but lie did not think it would be gcueral. Mr. Acland: Is there any tendency at presentt! Mr. Nordnieyer: It is not apparent. The .Minister added tliat there would be stricter contro! of hospital expenditure for whicli tho Health Department was working out a system. Wliat ho had said about hospital control also applied to staffa who, lie assured tlie House, would not beeonie civil servants. Also in replv to Mr. acland, the .Minister said tliat because of sucli a huge building progranuue for iiosiiitals in future, there would be ii larger arclii-U-ctural stalf in the department and so far aS individual hospitals were coiicerned, every consideratiou would be given to districts whicli alreadlv had a fuil quota of hospital beds and whicli •rt'quired more aecomniodation. Maternity RequirementS ' "It is not the policy of the GovernnuMit to elose down private or maternity hospitals,'' deeiared Mr. Nordnieyer. Ile said tliat for a varietv of reasons — lack of staff, request by the Health Department for the provisiou of better equipment, and because of the increasing age of licence holderS — some privute hos[»i l als and maternity liomes lutd closed down. Mr. (t. II. Macklev (Masterton): By compulsionf Mr. Nordnieyer: No. The Minister said it was not suggested tliat hospital standards had been lowered, but who would disagree tliat tliey should not be iiuproved! Mr. Acland, interjeeting, said tliat February would be the peak inonth l'o'r births and all available accouunodation would be required. -Mr. Nordnieyer said tliat steps were being taken to meet the position whicii would arise in February and wliich was a bad inonth. Mr. Frasei : Good inonth (langhterj. Mr. Nordnieyer went on to say tliat

racuittes were suen in uoapiiano ^ j larger cehtres today, that no private hospital oould hope to match the public ( hosxiital serviee. Mr. Nordnieyer, replying to several ( Members who had complimented tlie ^ Minister on the conduct of the Health ^ Departmeut's publlcity campaign, said ( tliat the campaign would be continued, but no draiuatic resuits were expected ( although it would yield good resuits ui ( timo. Maoris and Tuberculosis Discussing the ineidence of tuber- ^ eulosis among the Maori people, the ^ Minister said oue of the probknns mct ^ witli was that tlie Maori was often roluetant to undergo treatment. lie con- ' sidered that stricter powers should be takou to cnsury that a person should undergo hospital or sanatorium treut ment wlien that was considered dcsirable. lleplying to Mr. F. W. Doidge (Tauranga), who had criticised the solection Of Hillcrest (Hamilton) as a tuberculosis sanatorium, and who said it had been suggested tliat for a patient to g> there ' ' was a short cut to heaven ' ' as that area was noted for fog and smoko from peat lires, Mr. Nordmevcr said Hillcrest was not chosen by liim or tho Depurtment. Gomx>etent medical meii who had insx>ected every xiossibie site in the Houth Auckland area, had decided unanimously on the site, the udvantages of wliich outweighted the disadvantages. " lf any eonqietent body of medical meii will say that tlie site is not desirable, 1 will be glad to have tlie mattcr roopeued, " said the Minister. Discussing the questiou of ovorseas ntirses, Mr. Nordnieyer said the Government was coiicentrating at ju-esent on securing stalf for mentai hos|)itals and 011 the success of that schcine depended the bringing of fuVther numbers of nurses from oveiseas. Ineidence of T.B. Mr. M. II. Orani, asking for more urgent measures to combat tuberculosis, said it could be not only controlled but also eradicated within a reasonable time if adeijuate measures were taken. Mr. Oram said the kuown ineidence had increased among the Maori and European population in 1945 as agaiust 1944 and I from these ligures it appeared tliat we |were losing ground. M r. Fraser said Mr. Oram had drawn a wrong inference from the ligures as to the ineidence of tuberculosis. Until a fcw years ago there was ,no proper niachinery l'or linding out how many people had tuberculosis and it was ques- ; tionable- if tlie ineidence of tliis di'sease was fully known. Mr. l-Tuser said there j had, however, been marked im|u-ove- , ment in the last few years in measurfis j taken to detect and notify tuberculosis ; and statistics concerning ineidence were : u test, not of the spread of tlie disoase but of the increasing etiiciency in trac- ' ing it. Mr. Fraser agreed that' Tio 'ret sources of money or medical skill should be spared in combating tuber- • eulosis. ! Mr. I). C. Kidd (Waitaki) urged that improvement could best be obtainld by conceutrating on the cave of young people witli regular medical examina tions of all children once or twice vearly. Mr. T. C. Webb (Kaiparu) said ono diliiculty in attempting to stamp out tlie scourge of tuberculosis among the

Maoris, was the tendency of native people to be t'atalistic about sicKness. He iooked to the tribal committees to be set up under last year's legishition to achiove a great deai in educating Maoris to the modern attitiide toward siekness and its cure. Excliange of Patients Hon. W. E. Bai-ry suggested tliat the dry climate qf New Soutli Wales would oe piirticula rly. benelicial 10 tuberculosis patients and that an excliange of p:itient.s between New Zealand and Australia might well be encouraged. There Were doubtless many cases in . wliich New Zealand's eiimatic ' condi- ( tions would benelit invalids from Aus Iralia. Mr. Tirikatene said it niust bo realis ' ed that severe though the tuberculosis ■ scourgo was among the Maoris, cancer and heart dis.ease weie :ilso taking an increasing toll. Ile agreed witli Mr. Webb that the Maori Hconomie uild Bocial Advancement Act should lead to caluable educative work being carritkl out among the Maoris. , Mr. II. T. Mortuu ( \\raitemata ), questioned tlie wisdom of suppJying milk to 1 scliool children unless we could be certain that all of it was entirely free of. tuberculosis germs. He considered distribution of upples to scliool children far more important aud quostioned the reduction over the last two years in tho quantity.of fruit distriliuted. Hon. A. II. Nordnieyer said that long ago the Department -ofc Health rocognised the dunger of not liaving xmsteurlsed milk suxiplied -to sc'hools. Mr. F. Langstbne (Waimarino) dcclared that the basis of'our diseases was plain dirt and lilth in many cases. i "Dirty, iilthy, stinking places in rail- 1 way stations are a cesspit for disease, " j he said. There was insulhcient attcnlion paid to keejdug dcliools clean. Tho liome conditions of inahy Maori peox>le could be lield responsible for the sxit'cad j of tuberculosis and he advocated a cam- ! paign to imxirove conditions. Mr. Oram considered strong control was nccessary over known eases beforo there could be auy hop_e of eradicuting disease. The Private Hospital Mr. .1. Acland (Temuka) usked the Minister of Health if hosX>itals were to receive anv furtlier heJp [ from the Uoveriunent to meet their in- j creased costs. Arr. Acland xnnnted out that x'alients being in private hospitals at 9s x»er day and not in public lios pitals at more than £1 per day, savod ; the couutry a considerable sum. JMr. Nordnieyer said that the Goveru- ;f ment had not considered incretising; tlie rate paid to pHvate liosxiitals but | some consideratiou had been given to | the rate paid to maternity liomes. Mr. AclaAd: Quite a nuinber ot i private liosxiitals can't make ends meet 1 today. : Mr. Nordnieyer said that whilc the j J'rice Tribunal policy was being t'ol- j lowed, if there was an increase in tlie ; iimount paid by tlie Government — whar ; miglit bo called the basic fee — then the! difference must be lessened between j that amount aud tlie to tal cliarge. In 1 otlier words, tho patient and not tlie j licensee of a private hospital must be [ entitled to it. Child Nutrition - Mr. F. W. Doidge, who quoted from j the auiiual report of the Direetor- i General of Health, said it was disquiet- | ing to learn that there had been a slighl j imxirovement only in jire-.scliool chibl > nutrition wliich was subnormal in 10.54 \ per cent. in 1944 and in 8.8(5 per cenL. j in 1945. The report Jilso stated that ! 10.8 per cent. of mothers volnnta'rily admitted their children had insutticient sleep and furtlier, 7.4 per cent. di'l not bother to put toddlers dawn for a daytime rest. , ■ , Mr. Nordnieyer said- there Was no c-lear definition of what constituted mai nutrition. It was not alwavs a cuse of utiderfeeding but might 'be caused by overfeeding. Tlie most likelv cause was an unbalanced diet. Lack of sleep was oue of Ihe main conditions in mai nutrition. Discussing the Government grnnt. to tlie Plunket Society,- tlift Minister said increased grants did not niean in any way tliat public subseriptions should be diminished. Tlie increased grants were to meet- the Society 's increased costs and there was no suggestion that tlie Government. iutended to talce over the Plunkel Society. *