WELLINGTON HOSPITAL ACCOMMODATION

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 155, 27 March 1939, Page 8

WELLINGTON HOSPITAL ACCOMMODATION

None will dispute the urgent need for extra accommodation at the Wellington Hospital. Any doubts on the point will be removed by the superintendent’s statement that "the position is becoming so acute now that non-urgent cases will have to be deferred if the numbers continue as at present.” Free medical benefits under the Social Security Scheme will inevitably increase the demand for accommodation, which even in existing circumstances has increased the daily average of patients from 498 in 1932-33 to 708 in 1937-38, and is expected to reach 808 for 1938-39. There will be some difference of opinion, however, as to the wisdom of the decision reached by the hospital board on Thursday to spend between £400,000 and £500,000 on three blocks of the Centenary Hospital to meet this emergency, as is shown by the division of opinion on the board itself. The proposal went through only on the casting vote of the chairman. This weight of opinion against the scheme should not be disregarded. .The alternative proposal to provide emergency ward accommodation at a cost of £14,500 only, seems more in line with the realities of the position. There is the question of finance. Local bodies are finding it practically impossible to raise loan money on account of the Government’s restriction of interest rates to 3| per cent. It is true that the Government has promised assistance, but whether in present circumstances it will be able to provide loan money in addition to the promised subsidy is another matter. All over the country hospital boards are planning extensions for increased accommodation demanded by present needs and future requirements, and the Government will have many calls on its resources. Another factor to be taken into account is the uncertainty of the international situation, which has become extremely . critical. In all circumstances the task of relieving the sufferings of humanity must go on, but in times like the present there should be a prudent watch over expenditure. Though such emergency provisions as were proposed fall considerably short of what is ideal, and in normal conditions justified, they would meet urgent requirements for the time being. Furthermore, these could be provided with considerably less delay than would be involved in the more expensive scheme. Whatever has to be done, must be accomplished as soon as possible.