HOSPITAL EXTRAVAGANCE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1732, 24 April 1913, Page 11

HOSPITAL EXTRAVAGANCE.

Sir,—ls it not high time, in view of tho extravagance in connection with public hospitals, that Dr. Valintine attempted to restrain the ardour of misguided enthusiasts? - I)r. Valintine knows that the question is purely one of accommodation. No more beds should be provided than is necessary for the actual needs of the community. In a few years the number of beds in the Wellington Hospital lias doubled; not so, by any means, the population of the district. Providing excessivo hospital accommodation is only an invitation to mean people to fake advantage of free treatment. K another hundred beds in the AVellinglon Hospital were to bo forthwith provided, they would be used and the Hospital Board would no doubt .plume itself on its foresight and progress. The doctors do not attempt to check hospital abuse because many of them are anxious to be members of the honorary staff, and would not be olecled if they quarrelled with the administration. If Dr. Vnlijitine will do nothing to enconrago prudence and economy, tho extravagance can bo checked only by the local Ixidics. It requires a great deal of explanation to show why a most expensive pathological laboratory should bo built and a pathologist imported from England when this kind of work is already being well done in Wellington by the Government. Tho out-patient department has also been rebuilt for no valid reason.

No one wants to see deserving cases turned away from the 'Wellington Hospital, but it is quite unnecessary that the institution should be a kind of pasteur institute, and capable of doing the work properly belonging to private doctors, nurses and private hospitals. Mr. Bunny has done a public service in drawing attention to the fact that the money of the ratepayers is not. properly safeguarded in regard to hospital expenditure. The treasurer of the board says calmly "there is no knowing where it will' end."—! am, ote., AESCULAPIUS.