OUR HOSPITALS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1867, 29 September 1913, Page 3

OUR HOSPITALS.

INCREASING BURDEN OF COST. "As regards the public health of the Dominion, the past year has been a most satisfactory one," says the luspec-tor-Gonoral of Hospitals, in His annual report on the Department. . ''The roturns of the Kegistrar-General show the lowest general and • infantile ' mortality rates hitherto recorded in the Dominion. The diminution in the deaths fritm consumption and other diseases of an infectious nature is also satisfactory, and would go to show that the everincreasing expenditure on hospitals and othor matters affecting the public health is more or less justified. Noverthejess, tho, increase in expenditure on hospitals and charitable aid occasions some concern, especially to certain contributory local authorities which are feeling to the full the ever-increasing burden of the hospital levies. Though a relative reduction iii the maintenance expenditure of hospitals may be.hoped for with some confidence, there is little doubt thattho expenditure on buildings will continue to increase, owing to the fact that many of our hospitals are wooden structures which are now falling into decay. There is no doubt that a great part of this increaso in expenditure would be met if hospital boards would but insist on the payment of maintenance fees by those patients who are in a position to pay the full cost of hospital maintenance,' and it is hoped that hospital boards will look well to this source- of •revenue beforo increasing the levies on theif contributory authorities." Some of the reasons for the increased levies are set forth as follows(1) Hospital and charitable aid expenditure has increased in the ten years ending March 31, 1913, from ss. IOJd. ,per head of population to 9s. 6i|d. (2). But 25.8 per 1000 of the population availed themselves of hospital treatment in 1912-13, as against 18.2 in 1903-4. (3) And the average number of occupied-beds per diem rose from 1233 to 2131, or from 1.49 to 2.04 of the population. (4) The resulting capital • expenditure necessitated thereby has providod 3176 beds, as against 1988, or 3.03 per 1000 of the population, as against 2.40. (5) Capital expenditure was £27,508 in 1903-4— and £87,042 in 1912-13. (6) In addition to the necessity for providing additional wards, many of the old, wooden hci'.pitals have had to be rebuilt. The conclusions to bo arrived at from the foregoing are that tho increased cost of hospital and charitable aid' expenditure. in the Dominion iB owing to: (1) Number of people who now avail themselvos of hospital treatment. (2) Erection of new buildings. (3) Increase in cost of articles of consumption (as evidenced by our tables of prices paid each year). (4) Increase in rates of Balarieß and wages. The principal cause of tho increase' is undoubtedly, tho greater number of persons who now avail themselves , jf hospital treatment, whereas tho patients' payments only amounted last year 1 to one-third of tho cost of maintenance and treatment. Even wero the fees paid in full, tho amount received would not pay tho maintenance cost. I have on more than one occasion drawn the attention of boards to the necessity of raising their charges, as it is manifestly easier to reduce the fees to a necessitous person than to ask a person iti good circumstances to pay more than the fee fixed. I havo but recently sent a circular to hospital boards on tho subject,. as this appears to be the only means b.v which the ever-growing burden of hospital expenditure can be checked< . .