EXPLANATION OF POLICY

Southland Times, Issue 24236, 20 September 1940, Page 4

EXPLANATION OF POLICY

Southland Hospital

Board

SECRETARY REPLIES TO CRITICISM “The Southland Hospital Board has not been a pioneer in nursing reform, but then again it has, I think, at least kept above the average in the Dominion in most general conditions,” declared the secretary (Mr A. M. Williams) in a report which he presented at the monthly meeting of the board yesterday. Certain articles and letters had-appeared in the Press, and he had been asked to submit comments or explanatory details on a number of points raised, he said. Referring to salaries paid to first year nurses, Mr Williams said that the board’s trainees had been receiving £4O a year, less taxes. St. Helens hospitals, which were Government institutions, paid trainees £26 a year, less taxes. Earlier in the meeting, the board had agreed, on the recommendation of the executive committee, to increase by £5 in each case the wages of first, second and third-year nurses. Mr Williams quoted published criticism which stated that the Southland Hospital Board should increase nurses’ salaries by 10 per cent. Under the Social Security legislation, it was stated, the board received 6/- a day for each patient, and most hospital boards had been able to reduce hospital rates. The Southland board, however, had not done this.

It was generally known, said Mr Williams, that the Southland Board had employed more nurses for every 100 beds than the majority of other boards. As far as salaries were concerned, the board had always paid the ruling Dominion rate. In April this year increases in salaries costing £BOO a year were granted to the nursing staff. First, second and third-year nurses’ salaries had not been generally increased throughout New Zealand, and no change had been made in Southland. ADMINISTRATION COSTS Replying to the opinion which had been expressed that the board should be able to reduce its levies on local bodies, the secretary said that in March 1938 the average maintenance cost annually of each occupied bed in the Dominion public hospitals was £224/8/-. In 1939 the cost was £254. At 1940 the cost for each occupied bed in the board’s main institution, was £325.

In a comparison with the costs of other hospitals of under 200 beds, it was shown that in Invercargill, the cost for each occupied bed was £268 for the year ended July 31, 1939, whereas at Masterton it was £229, Wanganui £249, Napier £250, Gisborne £259, Timaru £247 and New Plymouth £270. The revenue received from patients varied at these hospitals from £44 to £93 a bed. At Invercargill it was £77. The revenue from Social Security was £lO9/10/- a year for each occupied bed.

In the years. 1930-31 to 1938-39, the general public had-made increasing use of hospital facilities, and whereas the population of the Dominion had risen from 1,497,750 to 1,611,362 in that time the number of in-patients in that time had increased from 89,147 to 114,451. An occupied bed today cost 18/- a day to maintain. The cost was met by 6/- a day from Social Security, 6/- a day from the Government subsidy, and the remainder from levies on local authorities. The Southland Board had not been able to reduce its levy on local authorities because it was making provision for an increased occupied bed rate and was financing large capital works from revenue.

Before the operation of hospital benefits under the Social Security legislation, Southland was receiving £77/14/- a year in patients’ fees for each bed. Other hospital boards were receiving a good deal less. In the cases of six boards quoted the amounts ranged from £44/16/- to £65/8/-. As all boards now received £lO9/10/- a year from Social Security, covering patients’ payments, the gain to the Southland Board would be a good deal less than to other boards. METHODS OF FINANCE Referring to suggestions that the board should finance capital works by loan rather than out of revenue, Mr Williams said that except for three items on the capital works schedule, none of the proposed work was of a nature to justify the flotation of a loan. The three items were: the new kitchen at Dee street, £3000; 100 new beds and fittings, £1900; reinstatement of the Kew, Hospital representing the difference’ between cost and the insurance money received, £4OOO.

“The first two items comprise expenditure to remove the neccessity, at present, for major additions to the Southland Hospital. ' Utilizing Dee Street Hospital removes the necessity, in the meantime for £120,000 additions to Kew. Over a 20-year term, disregarding interest, annual repayments would approximate £6000,” he -said. “Regarding the excess cost of Kew reinstatement, Kew was fully equipped and occupied in 1937. The financing of the extra cost by loan could not be justified. The whole proposals this year are certainly short range, but the board decided, in view of the present emergency, to utilize the present flooz space and to leave any long-range planning until the international situation had clarified.

“The Southland Board has assets of over £300,000 and a loan liability of only £lO,OOO. Assets of all hospital boards in the Dominion are of a total value of £5,551,925, with loans outstanding of £1,955,047. The average loan liability is therefore about 21/- a head of population. Loan liability in the Southland Hospital district is less than 2/8 a head of population.”