COMMUNITY HOSPITALS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 611, 13 March 1929, Page 16

COMMUNITY HOSPITALS

PRESENT DAY TREND MINISTER VIEWS SYSTEM Press Association PALMERSTON N. § Tuesday. The question of who shall be entitled to admission to public hospitals was referred to to-day by the Minister of Health, the Hon. A. J. Stallworthy, at the hospital boards’ conference. “There seems no reason "why the medical profession should not be adequately paid for its services,” said Mr. Stallworthy. “One o*f the objections voiced to the honorary system is that r it gives members of the honorary staff an undue advantage over their brother practitioners, in that the latter often lose patients after their discharge from hospital.” On the other hand it had been argued that a “closed” hospital—that was to say a hospital with a full-time stipendiary staff—was not a good one, and led to stereotyped and indifferent methods. It seemed that' a community hospital system must come, and that it must bo accompanied by some system of hospital insurance which would materially aid finances; by intermediate wards in which would be accommodated persons who were able and willing to pay the cost of their treatment; and by private wards which would provide facilities at higher rates to well-to-do people. The present system, which in some cases denied admission to the hospitals to many of those who through rates and taxes contributed to their upkeep, appeared to require to be faced. The question of admission or otherwise of any person because of his financial position should be dealt with by the board, and not by the medical staff.