Exclusive Wards

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 326, 11 April 1928, Page 8

Exclusive Wards

WEALTHY HOSPITAL PATIENTS

‘‘Not a Crying Necessity”

THE prospect of having rose petals in the bath, a telephone at the bedside, and luxurious surroundings while in public hospital is an inviting one. Official reports recently presented to the Government, however, assess the lees of private-ward patients in public hospitals in New Zealand at a figure higher than that asked for private hospital treatment, and at the same time express the view that they are not a crying necessity.

of such luxuries as exclusive treatment—at a price—in general hospitals are likely to be discouraged by the Health Department’s assessment of £8 Ss weekly as the minimum fee which could be charged, if all costs, including overhead charges, are to be met from current revenue—and this only if the wards

working man never could hope to pay his wav; he visioned the so-called idle rich undertaking their traditional “rest cure,” surrounded by the best that human ingenuity and nursing attention could provide. This delusion is shattered by a perusal of the avowed policy of hospital boards —tacitly approved by the department—which regard public hospitals as existing solely for those who are unable to pay for private medical and nursing treatment —always having in mind the requirements and circumstances of the specific districts over which they possess jurisdiction. FINANCE —NOT SENTIMENT It is finance rather than sentiment, however, which guides the destinies of hospital boards, and persuades them to observe care in projected departure from traditional methods of domestic administration. When the New Zealand hospital system was extensively reviewed nearly five years ago at an inquiry held at Palmerston North, it was revealed that members of the 8.M.A., and certain hospital boards, were favourable to the principle, provided that financial success could Be reasonably assured at the outset. The authorities, in order to facilitate an experiment, would sanction a long term loan to meet the cost of erection, the fees being so fixed as to meet the interest and sinking fund payments as well as the maintenance cost, but it is suggested that to ensure commercial success, payment of fees in advance would have to be insisted upon! If such a provision were made, and boards were compelled to this extreme safeguard, it is probable that the popularity of private wards would not rise to very great heights. On the contrary, it almost assuredly would spell the doom of the project before it was properly launched, for even the wealthy possess a decided aversion from paying for something they have not received. Popular imagination tends to the belief that private wards in public hospitals would be more cheaply administered than are private hospitals, but the comparative figures are extraordinarly illuminating. According to departmental calculation the running cost of public wards is approximately the same as that of private hospitals. A COMPARISON Extra beds for exceptional periods of sickness, free drugs and dressing, a stipendiary medical staff, and a numerically stronger nursing staff, contribute to the greater overhead charges at a public hospital compared with the private institution, which is planned to be always full, and which carries no overhead liability more than is absolutely essential for efficiency and commercial success; community benefit is not a factor. In consideration of the high cost, the most substantial argument against the private ward proposals, and the argument which sums up the attitude of the Health Department, is this: The homelike and private atmosphere of the country hospital spells contentment to the settler patient, while the cities possess ample private hospital facilities for those who are prepared to pay for them.

are kept full and if there are no bad debts. It is just to claim at the outset that any scheme which involves greater facilities for the comfort of people with means should not be in any way a charge upon the general taxpayer, nor should the fee payable by patients in public wards be increased in anticipation of any possible loss from the institution of a higher standard of treatment and greater nursing attention. Naturally the Government views this question in the light of public expenditure, and so long as the State purse is not affected, sanction will be given for an individual board to experiment with a block of private wards. It goes further and suggests that more efficient treatment should result. CLASS DISTINCTION It is more than possible that those who instigated the project did so in the firm belief that private wards would be procurable at a fee lower than that payable for treatment in a private hospital, yet necessarily higher than the figure asked for the usual service in the public wards. But it was upon the lines of possible class distinction that the democratic patron of the public ward raised his voice in protest. He foresaw our public hospitals—recognised abroad as being among the finest in the world — transformed into a panorama of luxurious villas, through which the