HOSPITAL DISTRICT.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4467, 15 September 1922, Page 3

HOSPITAL DISTRICT.

PATIENTS AT WAIHI. ANNUAL PAYMENT OFFERED. At the Thames Hospital Boa r <l meeting on Wednesday a letter was received from the Waihi Hospital Board suggesting that the payment of an "annual subsidy of £250 to Waiai would be a better method of adjusting accounts than the present one. Mr Johnstone: If they got £lOO I think it would be nearer the mark. The Chairman: That is the outcome of our visit to W.aihi. I am not very well pleased with it. Mr Hall: I think £250 is far too much. The Chairman : I asked the secretary to look up the amounts we have had to pay over a period of three years, and it averages out at £ll7 4s Id a year. Last year it was only £loo'. This offer is not reasonable. Mr Kennedy said he was prepared tq say it was a good proposition for the board to pay £250. He suggested that they should make an offer of a less amount, for treating all those on the other side of Kar.angahake. “I say,” he concluded, “that the Waihi Hospital Board has been generous in agreeing to treat the whole of our patients for £250.” The chairman could not look upon it as a generous offer. If the position arose that a large number of this board's patients went to Waihi, then they could be sure that that board would review the position. He was open to consider a reasonable offer. Mr Johnstone moved that the Waihi Board should be offered £lOO. There were any amount, of empty beds in the Thames Hospital. Mr Mackay said he thought £125 would be a reasonable offer. Mr Robinson suggested a further conference. Mr Kennedy said the matter had been fully discussed at Waihi, and there was no need for another conference. “I move as an amendment,’’ he said, “that we offer £125 a year to the Waihi Board for the treatment of any patients from, the other side of Rahu Road, Karangahake Gorge.’’ The following was subsequently added to this amendment: “And that this Board accept no liability for any other patients from other parts of the district.” Mr Kennedy’s amendment, as added to, was carried, only Mr Johnstone voting against it.