PALMERSTON HOSPITAL.

Shannon News, 15 June 1928, Page 1

PALMERSTON HOSPITAL.

HOROWHENUA COUNTY REMIT. REQUEST FOR LEVY DIVIDED BETWEEN CAPITAL AND POPULATION. The Palmerston North Borough Council’s resolution asking for the appointment of a commission to inquire into the hospital expenditure came before the Horowhenua County Council on Saturday, in a letter from the Palmerston Council, asking for support for the request. As was mentioned at the Levin Borough Council, the communication was belated, as it had been written prior to the request for a commission being decline'd by the Minister of Public Health.'

The accounts passed at the County Council’s meeting included the hospital levy of £1053. Commenting on tlfe letter, the County Chairman (Mr G-. A. Monk) referred to the fact that at the last meeting of the Council the district representatives on the Hospital Board, including himself, gave some information as to the :BoarcTs business. Whilst they had to view with some alarm the increasing cost, he thought that the district’s representatives recognised that they were keeping down the administrative cost of the institution as much as they could. It was not right to say that the members of the Board, because they did not directly collect the rates as a local body, did not conserve that revenue when they received it. Every effort was made to conserve it. They had no control over the times, however, and he could not help thinking that the increased hospital cost was a reflection from the rather hard times through which the country had passed. There were probably more people going into the hospital nowadays through not being so well off as to afford private treatment. Whether it was due to "the increase of population or to the race living at a faster rate, they did not know, but they did know that an average of 143 beds occupied in 1926-27 increased to an average of 181 last year. It was not the duty of Board members to say that the hospital would only take a certain number of people and that the remainder must do without nursing. Their duty was to assikt sick people to recover as soon as possible. A sick person ivas a burden on’ any country, but a healthy individual was an asset. The Council had resolved that a remit be sent to the Counties Conference asking that the method of making hospital levies should be altered. At present the levy was imposed wholly on the capital value—in other words, on the wealth. The remit which had now ‘been framed asked that the levy be 50 per cent, on the capital value and ’SO per cent, on the population. The boroughs would probably not agree to it—particularly those that were thickly populated; With regard to the Palmerston request for a commission, his view was that the Health Department, was probably as well conducted as any Government Department in the Dominion. Without seeking to give Dr. Valintine (Inspec-tor-General of Hospitals) any undue flattery, he must say that he did not know a public servant in the same line who knew his business better. Dr. Valintine had replied “no” to certain work which the Board had proposed. When the Inspector-General .said that certain work was necessary in connection with a hospital, it might be taken for granted that it was well overdue. Dr. Valintine had had to keep a curb on the finances of the Department; he told the Board that he had, held up a quarter of a million of capital expenditure. It must be remem . bered that the Department had to find half the money for hospital schemes. Cr. Catley, one of the representatives, endorsed the chairman’s remarks. He remarked that the Palmerston Council should be the last of local bodies to say anything in the matter. Palmerston provided 46 per cent, of the patients, while it only paid 20 per cent, of the cost. A statement which had been prepared showing the cost of administration of hospitals in New Zealand brought out the fact that Palmerston was the second lowest: on the list. It must be admitted that the institution was very economically administered; and he had every confidence in Mr Phillipps as a capable managing secretary.

A motion was' passed formally receiving the letter. The Hospital Board levy for the April-June quarter, amounting to £1053 5s sd, was passed at the same meeting of the Council.