BOARD IN QUANDARY

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 401, 9 July 1928, Page 14

BOARD IN QUANDARY

X-RAY FOR HOSPITAL INSPECTOR OBJECTS TO COST (From Our Own Correspondent.) OPOTIKI, To-day. The Opotiki Hospital Board is in a quandary oyer an X-ray plant it has purchased. The public had raised £750 toxvard the cost of purchasing a plant. The cost was to be subsidised by the Government at the rate of pound for pound. A plant costing about £I,OOO was purchased. It was now lying at the hospital waiting to be installed. Dr. T. H. A. Valintine, inspectorgeneral of health, had objected to the board purchasing such an expensive plant, saying that one costing about £SOO would have been big enough, and that if the one purchased were used a radiologist would have to be engaged, which would be ruinous to the board.

The secretary of the board, Mr. J. T. Merry, went to Wellington and interviewed Dr. Valintine in an endeavour to get him to change his opinion. Mr. Merry*s efforts were futile, as, after a two hours’ interview, Dr. Valintine flatly refused to grant a subsidy if the large machine were used. The position now was that the board would have, to get the makers to take the machine back and supply a smaller one, which would mean expense and considerable delay.