HOSPITAL FINANCE

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12613, 25 November 1926, Page 11

HOSPITAL FINANCE

INVESTIGATIONS BY MR APPLETON NEW ZEALAND SYSTEM SOUND. Afiter investigations in Australia, Mr Will Appleton, chairman of the iiospitai committee of the' Wellington Hospital Board, returns to New Zealand more than satisfied that the New Zealand system of financing hospitals is sound. “I came in contact with the administration of the larger hospitals in Sydney, and found that their finances were in a critical state,” said Mr Appleton yesterday. “The position is sucli that recently the banks have called their attention to the fact that they have exceeded the Government guarantee given them, and they were on the brink of closing some of the wards when the Government came to their assistance. It is evident that the hospitals there have suffered from shortage of maintenance funds because of the dilapidated condition of their buildings. “The system is bad. Large firms establish a fund for the purpose of a sort of hospital insurance, and to this fund each employee will contribute say 3d per week from wages. The Government guarantees their accounts up to a certain amount, and that is all that they have. The consequence is that they have no fixed finance at all. And while it may be wise to encourage people to subscribe voluntarily to hospital funds settled finance is essential to a‘ hospital board. ‘“When I was over there the Sydney General Hospital in Macquarrie street was faoed with' an expenditure of £300,000, and did not know where it was going to get it. “Dr McEachern, when forwarding an interim report on the hospital system of New South Wales t 0 the Minister for Health in Sydney, enclosed his report on the New Zealand system, and suggested that there were many features of our administration which niight he imitated with advantage on the other side.”