HOSPITAL MATTERS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4846, 29 June 1925, Page 3

HOSPITAL MATTERS.

WAIHbTHAMES AMALGAMATION. PROCEEDINGS OF WAIHI BOARD. Matters of moment affecting the future of the Waihi District Hospital were discussed at the monthly meeting of the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board, the chairman (Mr J. E. Slevin) presiding over a full attendance of members.

The first of these was the questi n of the amalgamation of the Waihi and Thames hospital districts, a matter which has been claiming the attention of the respective boards and of the Waihi Borough Council as the sole contributing local body to the Waihi Hosiptal, for several mnoths past. After the town clerk’s report bearing on various aspects as affecting the Waihi Hospital Board and hospital in the event of amalgamation had been read the secretary submitted a communication from the Thames Hospital Board on the subject. This intimated that that board, having carefully considered the proposals put forward by the Director-General of Health as a basis for the fusion of the two districts, had reached the following conclusion; —

“That the general, conditions and financial contained in the Director-General’s, letter are not acceptable to this Board. "That as the proposed adjustment involves an additional rating liability on local bodies, who are already accumulating rates, we respectfully urge the Minister from proceeding further in the proopsed amalgamation. "Should the Waihi Bo.ard, prior to the proposed conference between the two boards being arranged by the Director-General, desire to confer with this board on the amalgamation proposals, or any matters referied to in the Director-General’s communication, then a small committee shall be appointed to confer on behalf of this board and report on any matters iso suggested as being of interest to both boards.”

After members of the Waihi board had expressed their views on both the report and the communication from Thames it was decided that the acting-Director-General of Health be requested to convene a conference ot rerpesentatives of the Waihi and Thames hospital boards to discuss the whole question of amalgamation, the meeting to be held at Paeroa., and the acting-Director-General to preside. Provision was made for the attendance at the conference of a repiesentative of the Waihi Borough Council

It was also decided, on the motion of Mr S. H. Brown, (seconded by the chairman, that representatives of the Waihi Friendly Societies, the Waihi. Miners’ Union, the Waihi Chamber of Commerce, the Waihi mining companies, ancF’the local medical practitioners be invited to meet the hospital board in the Borough Council Chambers, with a view to discussing various matters bearing on the amalgamation proposal. In accordance with notice given, the chairman then moved : “That this Board withdraws from its existing agreement with the Thames Hospital Board as from April 1, 1925, and thatthe arrangement whereby the Thames Hospital Board payis to the Waihi Board the sum of £125 per annum, in lieu of . fees for patients from the Thames district treated at the Waini Hospital, be cancelled as from that date.”

The motion having been duly seconded. it was pointed out in the ensuing discussion that the sum paid by no means adequately represented the cost of the treatment of patients from the Thames district in the local institution, and that in future the practice of charging the recognised: fees in all cases would be followed. With this understanding the motion was then put to the meeting and carried unanimously.