HOSPITAL PATIENTS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4447, 31 July 1922, Page 3

HOSPITAL PATIENTS.

THAMES AND WAIHI BOARDS CONFER. QUESTION OF URGENT CASES. - ADJUSTMENT OF ACCOUNTS. The vexed question of the treatment of patients resident in the Thames hospital district at the Waihi District Hospital was ventilated at a round-the-table conference between representatives of the Thames board anl the Waihi board at Tuesday night’s meeting the latter, Mr. D. Donaldson, chairman, presiding. The Thames delegates, Mr W. EL Hale, the newlyelected chairman and a resident o p the Hauraki Plains, Mr W. C. Kennedy, Ohinemuri County’s representative, and Mr Geo .Tonge, secretary, made a special trip by. car to Waihi to confer with the Waihi board on a subject whichi has been more or Jess troublesome to the Thames board for the past seven or eight years. The visitors were welcomed by the Waimi board members and matters in connection with their mission entered upon. ' Mr Hale expressed his pleasure at meeting the Waihi members, and stated that it was right and proper to meet in order ,to come to an amicable understanding on a specific matter as between his board and the Waihi board. He had only recently assumed his present position, and whs a comparatively new member of the Thames Hospital Board, but he kpew that his predecessor, the late Mr W. J. McCormick, had Intended visiting Waihi to consult with the members o". the local board, and had only a week preceding his death, tinged, upon the speaker to fulfil the mission he himself had hoped to carry out. Owing to his short duration as chairman he '■ was not as conversant with the matter in hand as he should like to be, and his knowledge of the topography of< Waihi was limited, as ne had only, once before, in the course of 20 years, paid a visit to Waihi, and on that occasion it was in the evening, However, for the moment, he would leave the introduction of the business to Mr Tonge, who was acquainted with past a,nd present events as affecting the two boards. THAMES GRIEVANCE.

Mr Tonge, armed with much data, proceeded to explain his board’s attitude. in regard to the treatment of Thames hospital district patients in the. Wai,hi hospital. He harked back to .1914, when he stated the last big account, involving £250, was settled between the two boards at a conference. On that occasion the Waihi board had been asked to aflmit to its institution only urgent cases that needed speedy attention. That the Waihi board had failed to comply with the request was indicated in its next account against Thames, and up to the present time Waihi had consistently evaded what his board deemed was only fair to the Thames hospital. The names and particulars of Thames district cases treated in the Waihi hospital had from time to time been carefully noted by his board, and invariably there were a number that were not looked upon as urgent cgses. In the account ( for £l5O sent in 1917 there were instances of such cases. Again, in .1919, in an account for £156 6s 4d. there were more, and so on up to the present time. On each of the occasions the Thames board had repeated its request that only urgent c,ases be admitted at Waihi, that when patients were fit .to travel they should be transferred to t)he Thames hospital, and, further, that permission to admit Thames district patients should be obtained from the Thames board. This was the arrangement agreed to by the late chairman, Mr, T. Irvine, of the Waihi board- Mr Tonge then proceeded to give names, dates, and other details of patients admitted to the Waihi hospital who should rightly have been treated at Thames. He concluded by stating that, the Thames hospital treated over 10Q0 patients in a year, and that in the course >.f two years a lot ©if Waihi patients had been treated, from whom he had invariably collected the fees. Hence it was that within this period the Thames account against Waihi had amounted only to £36 Is. Mr Kennedy said that the Thames board certainly did object to patients from Paeroa, Komata, Nethertpn, and other places in the Paeroa district being admitted to the Waihi hospital He would, however, not expect patients at the Waihi end of the Thames hospital district to gp past Waihi for treatment, even though not urgent cases. He was satisfied that, the charges of 3s a ( nd is 6d per day for Thames patients treated at the Waihi hospital were very reasonable, and he was further satisfied that the actions of the Waihi board were bprn of humane principles. Nevertheless, his board wanted an answer from the Waihi board as to whether it was going to comply with the request from Thames. Possibly ,an annual subsidy from the Thames instead of being called upon to pay for the treatment of patients could be arranged. THE WAIHI VIEWPOINT. Mr Donaldson, in reply, said that it was not an easy matter to evolve a scheme that would be perfect, as there were many difficulties in the way. Mr Tonge appeared to view the position in a harsh manner. Hospital boards, could not be run on the policy of exacting the utmost farthing, but rather should be conducted on humanitarian principles. It Would seem that the Thames Hospital Board members acted more strictly and harshly .than did the members of nis board The crux of the whole discussion seemed to revolve round the question of: only admitting urgent cases to the Waihi institution requiring speedy attention. Waihi was a pocket surrounded by the Thames hospital district, consequently patients belonging to that district were being continually admitted into the Waihi hospital, and it was not humanly possible to refuse patients. The suggestion of an annual subsidy from the .Thames board would, he thought, be a more workable and perhaps equable scheme. • Should they refuse patients who paid rates to the

Thames hospital surely such an action would bring trouble on the heads of the Thames board. The Waihi Borough contributed £2OOO to £2500 towards the upkeep of the local hospital in order to have the means of alleviating the suffering of the town. Should the Waihi hospital be governed by Thames ,then the Waihi borough’s liability would not likely exceed £5OO annually. The amount of fees for treatment of Thames district patients during the past three years amounted to £450, an’average of £l5O a year, as against £lOOO a year on the supposition that Waihi went in with Thames. Mr Donaldson, in Concluding, said that he would recommend that his board place the full facts before Dr. Valintine and ask him to suggest a plan that would be fair to both boards.

Mr Hale, on behalf of the Thames representatives, thanked the Waihi board members for the wanner to which they had been received, and s,aid he felt that good would follow in the train of the meeting, and hoped to have an early reply from Waihi on the subject of the discussion.