HOSPITAL EXPENDITURE.

Shannon News, 16 October 1928, Page 2

HOSPITAL EXPENDITURE.

£2400 OVER ESTIMATES, MAINLY OWING TO INCREASED PATIENTS.

The secretary of the Palmerston North Hospital Board (Mr A. J. Phillips) reported to the meeting of the Board on Thursday that the amount collected in paients’ fees for the halfyears was £4,694, as against £3,493 for the corresponding period last year, an increase of over 30 per cent. The estimate for the year was £9,500 including an amount of £SOO which it was estimated would be collected at Otaki. As the Board had not commenced to carry on at Otaki up to the present, it would be seen that for the half year.it has exceeded half the estimate. With regard to hospital maintenance expen-, diture, the payments for the six months had amounted to £17,620 as against £13,492 for the corresponding period last year, an increase of £4.128. The average number of patients for the corresponding periods were 159 for 1927 and 195 for 1926, an increase of 36 in the average number of occupied beds. “It is necessary to point out” the. secretary added “that if the numbers in the hospital retain their present high level, it will be extremely difficult, to keep the expendituie for the year within the estimate.”

The Chairman (Sir J. G. Wilson) stated that the estimate of expenditure to date had been £15,275 so the Board had really gone over its estimate to the tune of £2,400. The executive had decided to draw the attention of the heads of the various departments to the increased maintenance expenditure and ask them to exercise caution.