Sickness And the Cost

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 413, 23 July 1928, Page 8

Sickness And the Cost

AUCKLAND’S HOSPITAL NEEDS

NOW that the Minister of Health has determined to facilitate the Auckland Hospital Board’s efforts to erect the new infectious diseases ward, there are prospects of an early settlement about the site. If this be approved immediately, however, no contract could be let until the end of the current year. On the modified estimate, the new block of buildings will cost, approximately £6ll a bed to erect and equip—a figure which appears surprisingly large alongside capital costs for similar hospitals in England.

Three and a-half years have passed since the Auckland Hospital Board was reminded by the health authorities that more accommodation for infectious cases was required, and although efforts were made at that time to deal thoroughly with steadily increasing numbers of cases? it was not until comparatively recently that the outcry for beds rose to such a pitch of urgency that none could deny its response. With a regular capacity for 6SO patients in the general hospital, the board has been accommodating 710 sick people, while in the infectious diseases section 122 cases have been treated in the space originally designed for S 5 beds. Cross-infection has occurred through diphtheria and scarlet

fever patients being too closely associated, and the institution is now faced with a diminishing prospect of discharging its obligation to treat allcomers. AUCKLAND’S COST LOW Meanwhile the style of building most suited to the requirements of isolated patients -had been agreed upon, but authority to build is withheld by the Director-General of Health, Dr. T. A. Valintine, until the board will agree to the block being erected near the T.B. shelters in the Domain. The board insists, for administrative con-

venience, as well as for the elimination of Infection dangers, upon placing the structure in the existing isolation area around the hospital. Despite the chorus of protest from contributing local bodies in respect to the substantial rise in hospital levy for the current year, the cost of hospital administration does not impose such a burden upon the Aucklander, as that which the ratepayers in other centres are called upon to bear. Auckland, with a population of 244.045. pays 17s 3d a head for its hospital costs, and its Government subsidy reaches 20s d in the £. Wellington, where there are 137,975 people, pays 21s lOd a head, and gathers from the State a ;t:bsidy of 23s 9d upon its expenditure. North Canterbury, a district which embraces the Christchurch Hospital and its multiplicity of buildings, has a population of 163,665 and pays for its hospital administration 23s lid a head, while its share of Government subsidy reaches 21s lOd. Otago, which serves the city of Dunedin, assesses its cost of 24s Id over a population of 104,455, and draws from the Consolidated Fund a subsidy of 25s 3d. INSUFFICIENT BEDS Coincident with these figures, however, it is recorded as a comparative illustration of community service that Auckland Hospital over all possesses 2.1 beds for every 1,000 of population, Welliugton 3.8, Canterbury 2.7 and Otago 3.4. ThefJ; figures are used by the chairman of the Auckland Board to illustrate the need for further accommodation, and he believes that upon the health statistics of Auckland this hospital should possess three beds in every 1,000 people in order to deal adequately with ordinary eases, and at least one bed for every 1,000 for infectious cases. The question has been raised in many minds whether the outlay in hospital extensions here is returning commensurate or whether the effect of even the most careful administration is being nullified by capital cost. The new block of buildings is to cost £33,000, and is to accommodate 54 patients—a capital expenditure of £ 611 a bed. If the scheme as originally designed had been carried through, the cost would have been £40,000, or £740 a bed to install. This cost of building and installation compares most unfavourably with some of the most up-to-date hospitals in the Old Country, which were erected and fitted at a cost of under £IOO a bed. Even allowing for the added cost of material in this country, the discrepancy appears extraordinarily great. It is certain that a serious outbreak of disease would find this city tragically unprepared at present, and even an epidemic of winter influenza, with its recurring danger of vital complications, would leave in its wake a trail of pitiful administrative impotence.