HOSPITAL CONTROL.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1600, 18 November 1912, Page 3

HOSPITAL CONTROL.

AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND SYSTEMS. INTERESTING COMPARISONS. AN INTERVIEW WITH MR, J. COYLE. For some years past Mr. J. Coyle (secretary of the Wellington Hospital and Charitable Aid Board) has made a practice of paying an annual, visit to the Commonwealth, partly on holiday bent and partly in order to obtain information as to the methods of hospital administration that find favour on the other side of the Tasiuan Sea. Last year Mr. Coyle was a guest at the centenary celebrations of 'the Sydney Hospital, tlie foundation stone of which was laid by Governor Macquarie in 1811. This year he again elected to . spend his holiday in Australia, and paid a visit to Sydney, from which he returned a .day or two ago. During each of his annual trips Mr. Coyle has gathered a budget of information regarding hospital management. The hospital system of New Zealand, Mr. Coyle states, is very different fioiu that of New South Wales. Here tho wnole of the hospitals are governed on a uniform plan under the Department of Public Health, and each institution has an assured revenue, independent of voluntary contributions. The public hospitals of New South Wales are practically divided into three classes: (1) Government hospitals, which are mostly asylums for tho insane or infirm; infectious diseases, consumption, and one general hospital; (2) hospitals -subsidised by the Government; and (3) unsubsidised hospitals (Roman Catholic institutions, run on undenominational lines). Observation of tho New South. Wales system, with its outstanding features of independent control of individual institutions and support of hospitals by voluntary has strengthened Mr. Coyle in a conviction that tho New Zealand . system is much preferable. It might have to be modified to suit lt-cal conditions in the Australian States, ho thinks, but ho sees no reason why tho New Zealand system, in its broad features, should not work as well in the States of the Commonwealth as it does in. this Dominion. . The people of New South Wales- contribute freely to the upkeep of their hospitals, but while giving them all credit fcr this, Mr. Coyle pointed out that providing hospitals in. this country with an assured revenue has by no means dried up the wells of private benevolence. In this connection Mr. Coylo referred to the readiness with which funds were subscribed in Wellington for the erection of the Children's Hospital, and mentioned also, that the sum realised from the-last Hospital' Saturday collection in Wellington amounted- to £697) leaving the Government subsidy out of account. An objection to the system of support by private donations upon which New' South Wales hospitals so largely depend, Mr. Coyle remarked, is that people are neither so able nor so willing to contribute freely when times are bad as at other, times. The two largest hospitals in Sydney are the Royial Prince Alfred (400 beds) and the Sydney Hospital (346 beds), which are not only subsidised but receive grants from the Government.. (Tho Wellington Hospital has 318 beds). In the case of the subsidised hospitals, the New South Wales Government pajo .£1 for il upon , fill subscriptions, donations, etc. The two larg4 State-aided hospitals receive, in addition, a subsidy of JS3S per bed for occupied beds up to a total'of 300 beds. The Government Board of Health recommends or gives orders for admission, but tho medical superintendent has the right of admitting those recommended. The majority of patients are recommended by mcdical practitioners or subscribers. The Hon. Fred. Flowers, who is the Minister in Charge of Hospitals m New South Wales, has recently issued, a .pamphlet on the.hospital systems existing in that State. Ho strongly favours tie na-. tionalisation of hospitals, but admits there are almost insurmountable difficulties in the way. Mr. Coyle was informed durmg his-visit that tho New South Wales Cabinet was.not unanimous upon the question of'nationalisation upon the attitude of the ■Medical: Association. ...... , •_ v.< "In- comparing the hospital systems in vogue in.each of. the.Australian States with that ,of New Zealand, Mr. Coyle went on to remark,-"I am quite sure the svstem adopted' in New and which is now working under the Hospitals ana Charitable Institutions Act, 1909,. has very much to commend it.. The Zealand system to my mind is far ahead of any of the Australian systems, but it does not follow that it would give equal satisfaction elsewhere. ' . "The hospitals which I saw are exceedingly fine institutions, which tho people are very proud of, and they contribute magnificently to their iipW There is no hospital and chantnblo aid tax collided bv the local authorities, consequently; the majority of the hospitals are tinually collecting from the.public, as.well as going cap in hand to the Government. '"Hospital managers and members of Hospital Boards all seem keen and enthusiastic in hospital work and managem"ln the two large hospitals I find that much consideration has been given* to ameliorating 'the conditions, under which the nurses work, and provision is made that every member of the nursing statt shall be relieved of her duties for hours in each week. - The annual leave (if nurses has been increased to 28 days. Nurses in the Wellington . Hospital get three weeks' annual leave, and sisters get -four weeks." Mr. Coyle added that his impressions had led him to the conclusion that in the Wellington Hospital we had a verv fine training school for our nurses. "■Vnd'it is a comprehensive training, he said. We have the Children's Hospital, Fever Hospital, the .Victoria Home for incurables, the Seddon annexes for eonsumptives, and the out-patients department. As we have no medical school here, our nurses are> further, called upon to perform such duties as would otherwise Jdo performed hv medical students. In the two largest hospitals in Sydney, he added, he found provision for the training of nurses in the dispensary. So far as the supply of staple articles of food to hospitals is concerned, Mr. Coyle found that the Sydney arrangements did not come up to those in vogue under the administration of the Wellington Hospital Board. Here the bread is made on the hospital premises, whereas the Sydney hospitals get their bread from outside. Milk is supplied to the Wellington Hospital from; a speciallysupervised dairy farm; fruit and vegetables are obtained ' from the market. Great pains are taken to obtain. food of the best quality. These details are less elaborately administered in Sydney. The Royal Prinoe Alfred Hospital employs a butcher, and buys it 3 meat 'upon the hoof," and the Sydney Children's Hospital has a special milk supply, but, generally speaking, Mr. Coyle found that the arrangements for' food-supply which obtain in Wellington compared very favourably with those in vogue at the Sydney hospitals. Mr. Coyle speaks in high terms of the courtesy with which he was received by officials and others in the hospitals which lie visited during his trip.