DUNEDIN AND CHRISTCHURCH HOSPITALS.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2018, 12 August 1880, Page 3

DUNEDIN AND CHRISTCHURCH HOSPITALS.

At yesterday's meeting of the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board, Mr March submitted a statement showing the receipts and expenditure at each of the above institutions for the half-year ending June 30th, 1880. The statement was intended as a reply to a letter from the Colonial Secretary, requesting an explanation as to why the cost of the Ohristchurch Hospital was in excess of that at Dunedin. We make the following extracts :—The expenditure at the Dunedin Hospital was £2853 183 lOd, and at the Ohristchurch institution £2527 143 2d, showing a difference of £326 4j Bd. The daily average number of patients at Dunedin was 114, at Christohurch 85, or about one-fourth less. The expenditure at the Ohristchurch Hospital, to correspond with Dunedin in proportion to the number of patients, should therefore be one-fourth more, or a total of £3159 12a Bd, which would show a difference in excess of £305 133 lOd. The statement then goes on to explain the reasons why the expenditure is greater at Ohristchurch than at Dunedin, the principal items being—Light and fuel, £56 10s 3d ; medical comforts, £44 2s 3d ; incidental expenses, £SB 12s Id ; and burials, £2O 15s 6d. Tho first item is due to the fact that the Dunedin building is far more compact than that at Ohristchurch, the latter containing 57 fire-places against 23 in the former. The cost of gas for the half-year was—Dunedin, £42 ; Ohristchurch, £lO4 9s 9d. A comparative return of the salaries per annum paid at Dunedin and Ohristchurch up to June 30th shows the amounts to have been £2177 and £1732 respectively. The coßt per annum of the present staff at the latter Hospital is £1504, showing a reduction since June 30th of £228 per annum. Mr March winds up by saying that there can be no doubt that with a greater number of patients the average cost would have been much lees. The reply was considered satisfactory by the Board, and a resolution was passed that a copy of the memorandum, accompanied by a letter from the Chairman, be forwarded to the Government.