The Sun. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18, 1928. HOSPITAL COSTS CLIMB HIGH

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 332, 18 April 1928, Page 8

The Sun. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18, 1928. HOSPITAL COSTS CLIMB HIGH

THE majority of the Auckland district ratepayers will be * pleased to observe that the Hospital Board does not look like losing its bead over the recommendation of a recent medical congress urging the establishment of special wards in general hospitals for paying patients. All that was necessary for authoritative representatives of the public to say about the expensive proposal was said yesterday by the chairman of the board, and said well.

It was made clear by Mr. W. Wallace (whose excellent services as chief administrator have been secured for another term of office) that, whatever else the board might or might not do, it would continue jealously to guard the present system of having the control of hospitals vested with the people. Perhaps those New Zealand members of the British Medical Association, who are pressing hard for the provision of special paying wards in public hospitals will contend tersely that they do not seek control of the general hospital system, hut such argument would he beside the point. The people will interpret Mr. Wallace’s declaration of policy as meaning a fixed determination to maintain the principle that the main purpose of the general hospital system is to provide skilled treatment of sick and injured people who are not able to pay fees on the highest scale. Even if the board had been dumb on the subject of “combining the existing free system of medical attention with a scheme of special wards for paying patients,” the most effective argument against its adoption these days and for a long time to come was provided in the form of a balance sheet. Indeed, the board’s financial statement was such as to make the overburdened ratepayers gasp in disconcerted astonishment at the pitch of the expenditure. Under all headings last financial year the total cost ran close to £250,000, and even at that no one can pretend that the formidable aggregate completely covered the whole field of hospital and allied institutional necessities. Auckland still is a pathetically inadequate centre for the treatment of T.B. and cancer patients, to say nothing about the long-neglected need of a hospital for infectious diseases and a general convalescent home where patients, slow at recovery, could obtain the right attention amidst a pleasant environment and at reasonable charges after they have ceased to arouse the ardent interest of hospital doctors, surgeons and nurses. It is, of course, helpful to suppose that a spell in hospital will effect a complete cure for most ills, but however well that works out, in theory, everybody knows that, in practice, it too often does not work well at all. The result is much misery in many private households. Hospital expenditure climbs so rapidly that the ratepayers must wonder where the peak will be fixed. It is a beautiful and a reassuring sight to see the cliff of hospital buildings shine over the Domain at night like a firmament of stars, hut' clear daylight and an accountant’s report disclose the cost of the rare picture. The maintenance cost of the hospital alone leaped upward last year by more than £IO,OOO. It is right in fairness to note that, in the board’s general expenditure, one item was abnormal. This was the sum of £33,379 for the relief of social distress caused mainly by a record evil of unemployment which, under active statesmanship and efficient politics, need not have existed at all. But, after making full allowance for abnormalities, the board’s normal expenditure has been heavy enough to call fpr a cautious policy in respect of ambitious and, here and there, selfish extensions and innovations. Not even the shrewd idea of a doctor to devote an honorarium of £2OO a year from the hoard to a fund for building special wards for paying patients should lure the board into extravagance.