NEW HOSPITAL SCHEME

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 131, 4 June 1937, Page 8

NEW HOSPITAL SCHEME

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—The protest from the Wellington Katepayers' Association reported in last Tuesday's "Post" deserves very serious consideration as it raises the question as to whether the system of large hospitals is more in the interests of the whole community than the system of smaller hospitals. On principle, Sir, a system of more smaller hospitals gives more efficiency, and it is endorsed by high medical'authority in Wellington. As one who has been a patient of the Wellington Public Hospital I can say this, that, although all the medical men, nurses, and attendants at the hospital do very wonderful work on behalf of the patients who become inmates, and one cannot speak too highly of their work, the system is so complicated in its nature that not one penny should be spent on a new hospital scheme until the whole hospital system has been investigated and the' weaknesses, made known and rectified. Points for investigation are whether the medical supervision is adequate, whether the'nurses are" overworked or have sufficient time to attend to patients properly, and the standard of treatment. The private hospital system is certainly an improvement on the public hospital system in some respects; and if the community is to get the best service out of its hospital system, then something more than a huge expenditure on a new hospital as is proposed in Wellington will certainly have to be done. We must look before we leap.—l am, etc..

T. F. SIMPSON.