HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATION

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 878, 23 January 1930, Page 8

HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATION

BY deciding to strengthen permanently and substantially its executive medical staff, the Auckland Hospital Board has faced, at last, a problem of steadily-increasing importance. The remarkable growth and extension of a hospital that, today, in certain respects, ranks as the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, has been followed inevitably by heavy increases in the burden of its administrative responsibilties. Qualified opinions and public utterances of the recent past indicate clearly that the time is ripe for a readjustment of medical supervision in keeping with the requirements of an institution that has far outgrown the standard New Zealand methods of control. In accepting the assertions of experts who are satisfied that additional executive medical service is imperative, and agreeing with the board’s decision to appoint two registrars—one surgical and one medical —at salaries of £6OO a year each, it must he emphasised that the move has the fullest support and approval of the Medical Superintendent, Dr. C. E. Maguire, and the honorary staff. Dr. Maguire, to whom must go much of the credit for the guidance of a fast-growing hospital to its present state of development, has shouldered responsibilities of increasing magnitude, and his task today as an administrator is such that the assistance of staff colleagues who can undertake as one of their principal duties the direct supervision of junior resident medical officers appears to be vitally necessary. The honorary staff is in similar need of relief. As Mr. M. J. Savage observed, the Auckland Hosjiital has reached a stage whereat reliance on the services of honorary medical men to the present extent is unfair. He might have added that it is a decided weakness. If, therefore, it be essential that relief and assistance he given to the honorary staff and the superintendent, the quality of the reinforcement should he of the best. Expert medical men expect and deserve attractive remuneration, and there need he no disagreement w'ith the intention to pay £1,200 to secure two medical registrars. At present the board’s commitments are heavy and extra expenditure is to be looked at askance. It was not surprising, therefore, that the proposal failed to pass the board’s meeting without discussion, the Rev. W. 0. Wood making a plea for further consideration. His caution is commendable, hut hardly necessary, for this need has been known to the board for a long time past. Moreover, Mr. Wood will remember that he was prominent in exposing and condemning existing weaknesses of the board’s hospital administration as it affected coordination. He must agree that a move which will relieve the medical superintendent of much routine work and anxiety must lead to improved general control of the hospital departments.