ECONOMY PENALISED.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3779, 14 April 1928, Page 3

ECONOMY PENALISED.

—♦ HOSPITAL BOARD’S PROTEST Claiming that it is being penalised because of its economy, the Palmerston N. Hospital Board intends to renew its protest to the Department that there should be any refund of the Government subsidy on the part of the board. The DirectorGeneral of Health (Dr. Yalintine) wrote to Thursday’s meeting, stating that the refund this year amounted to £1,639 8/9, and would be recovered by the Department by deducting the amount from the first subsidy claim made from the ensuing year. “You see they have the whip in hand,” stated the chairman, Sir J. G. Wilson, who explained that the board had been fighting for a long time to have the regulations amended so that refunds would be unnecessary. The position was that the Government subsidised hospital boards from 14/- to 26/- in the £, provided the total subsidies did not exceed a certain sum. If that total was exceeded, the various boards had to refund the difference pro t rata, but the anomaly lay in the fact that it reduced the subsidy of the boards that had economised in greater proportion to those that had been extravagant. Tre board decided to bring the matter again before the DirectorGeneral during bis visit to Palmerston North next week.