UNPAID HOSPITAL FEES.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 691, 16 December 1909, Page 7

UNPAID HOSPITAL FEES.

A YEAR'S LOSS, £12,500, DAILY LEAKAGE OF OVEE ss. PEIt V PATIENT. Hospital administration was strongly criti* Jised at yestoiday's mooting of tho District of Wellington Hospital Board, special roferenco ocing made to the non-collection of fees from i large proportion of the patients j The subject was introduced by ono of tho new members, Mr. B. E Gardener, of Lerai, who said he had been asked by tho Horotrhenua County and the Levin r Borough. Council "to' protest against tio 3mallnes3 of the revenue of tho local in- , stitutions from fees At tho Wellington Hospital last year, out of 2700 in-patients, only 523 paid fees, amounting to jE3i!4, and out of ' i 15,000 which was duo in \fees, over .£II,OOO remained uncollected / At Otala Hospital there were 12-1 patients during the year, and tho tcc3 totalled £Wa lis Id, though the amount collectable was .£730, a difference of ,£565. y Then at tho Otaki Sanatorium, h© calculated, on Iho basis of an average of 10s. a week, that £648 was collectable, whereas the amount collected was only JC2M, a shortage of £&i Only 33 of tho patients, out of 75, had raado an. attempt to pay for their treatment U tho three institutions together, nearly ,£12,500 had been lost in foes that had become duo and i were not collected dunng the year. The matter was a very serious one , One-seventh, of tho rates paid by the Horowbenna County Council and the Levin Borough Council went » , to hospital and charitable aid, and one-ninth ' of the rates raised in other parts of the Wellington Hospital District In many cases no J cffoit was made to collect the fees, but if a ratepajor was liable for fees, they were always demanded Jf uo improvement could bo made, ' thej might just as well throw the hospitals open to evorvbodj People left the institutions and were never beard of again. A Scandal. '• i Tho thing, continued Mr" Gardener, was a scandal throughout the Dominion, only .£28,000 being collected out of ,£13{,000 due, so that the Wellington district was not tho only one at fault He looked upon the hospitals as, to a - ceitnin extent, business institutions, but what would they saj of a business-man who gave* cicdit to the extent of ,£16,000, and onlj got back .£IOOO ? Such a tradesman would ,7 gd bung" m a -very short time In spite of tho ' increased capital value of the Horowhenua distnct, the hospital rate had again gone up.« Ho noticed that last year there jvere s 2fj dciUis at tho Wellington Hospital, but iumul expends \>eie pail bj the trustees m onlj 32 cases In tho other cases thp bodies must have been taken aw as, and buried bv the friends of the deceased If they could t aftord to pay .£ls to A2O ior funerals, they * could have paid some'hing ton arcs the cost of tio-itment at tho Hospital before Tho' daily avcrago cost of patients in the Wellington i J Hospital was 5s ll^d, and the avorage paid bv e'lch was ,od, leaving i daih average - 1 loss of 5s IJd nor patient There wore 3970 outpatients during the jear, and he believed' "\ half of them should never have gone to'tho Hospital at all. When ho lived in Wellington, > ' he had known of people who put on old clothes on purpose to go to tho Hospital. At -" Otaki Hospital, the daily average cost was Cs ii, and the amount received 9}d ,\ leaving a daily loss per patent of\ ss. 6Jd At the banatonum, th* average cost was is BJd, and the pajmeut 7Jd, leaving a daily loss* per patient of Is OJd Ho considered thattho Horowhenua district should not be tacked , on to this Wellington Hospital district at>all, s but whil< he was on, tho board, he would* l try to mimtnise this leakage through non-par- ' nig patients t Ho would do his utmost, though, not a rich man, he might be unable i to do very much He thought it would be a groat deal better if the Government paid members oi the boards He moved the up- -i pomtment of a committee to go into the mat- > , tcr of collection of fees A Prospect of Reform. Tho achug Chairman (Mr John Smith) said > lie believed the Wellington Hospital Trustees had tried to increase the income from patients " in every possible way. When he - was a trustee, Ihey appointed a collector, but the tsmall amount no brought m was not worth while When a summons was taken out, tho magistrate generally refused to mike an order ilnuregaTd to the institutions "at Otaki, tho advisory lorumittee there was consulted, and names were written off or retained on tho . hooks, avoiding to its recommendafcvtis Mr J J Dcvmo said that in abcut three months' time the constitution of the board would be entirely altered, and the raising and spending of the money would then bo in the \ 1 hands of the same body He thought, thereI foie, that the course proposed by Mr. Gari doner was hardly called for at present » Mr C J Crawford seconded the mbtion, bnt i said he had very great hopes of the now ward Tho present organisation was vory ini complete, and "there was a v hopeless leak-ago of funds He did not blame the present olh-. i s»aw It was the organisation that was at I fault I'hey emplojed a secretary, and gavo him a miserable pittance, so that ho was not •, i paid to do the work, and could not give the . time to it. The new board should • tako a ' comprehensive view of tho situation, and pay a salary that would enable a man to spend his ' whole time on the vork, and>put matters on" a propci footing ' Mr Gardener said that, in view of the aspect of the matter emphasised by the last two speakers, ho would withdraw his i motion. Tho new board should hold a public inquiry into the whole position Tho wholo, system wanted turning upside down. It was absoluterj v rotten ' ■• - -1 Statement by the Secretary.' Mr G Willis, secretary to the board, explained that he had nothing to do with collect- , mg the fees for the Wellington Hospital 'The * collection of fhe Otaki Hospiiifiiand Sanatorium *„ fees did, however, depena upon him, and he was of the opinion that double the amount could bo v collected, but Mr Crawford had hit ' the nail on the head when ho said that ho i. (Mr. Willis) had not time to do it When a patient left the Otaki Hospital, the matron gave him qX, hei a bill, and notified him of , the amount Jue They paid the fees to tho ' matron, and they were entered in a book and sent to him When an account was about * sii. months old, he sent out a notice, and if no result came, he sent out anothor after three months, but it was not of much use Personal' canvass was tho only way to get tho money in, and if a canvasser was employed by the board, he would savo his salary to the board i and bring in a large amount in\teos He would " havo alieady recommended the board to appoint one, but he thought it better to wait until the new Act came into force, because thenl- - board would have a local secretary at Otaki, who would be able to undertake collecting Mr Crawford had said that rate- - payers treated in the hospital always had - to pay, but os a matter of tact absolutely no distinction was made m claiming fees, and he ' (Mr Willis) did not meet the patients, or know whethei they were ratepayers or not Eo only*, \ had their names on the books, and dealt with them by writing The board might rest assured that the amount of fees could be doubled when they bad a man with time for collecting, but in the meantime he was doing alb he could. * Over 200 notices were sent out last weck-e"nd Mr Gardener snid tho police should be asked as to the circumstances of those who were not paying. Mr W'llis said this could be dono by a local man, but not by him Doctors and Wellington Hospital. ' Mr Smith said there should be a much better state of affairs v.hon the board had a local office and secretarj at Otaki, instead of administering the institutions altogether from ' Wellington The board had no control over' tho Wellington Hospital, but he believed tho'> trustees of that institution did good work and collected as much money as possible Doctors sometimes rocoinrondod uahents to go into tho hospital because thev knew they could not get their own fees from them Ho hoped Mr. ■> Gardener's remarks would bear fruit in tho -! election of the nuv board Mr Crawford said he had no intention what-, ever of reflecting upon any officer It was th«' svsteni he was hndinj fault with It was impossible for Mi Willis in Wellington, to collect tho fees of the Otaki institutions