RAETIHI HOSPITAL.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3609, 22 October 1920, Page 4

RAETIHI HOSPITAL.

MINISTER'S REPLY TO THE* : BOARD.

•At lasf meeting of the Hospital Board strong exception was taken by members to certain remarks made by the Minister for Public Health in Parliament recently, referring to the Wanganui Hospital Board. The Board

passed a motion which was duly forwarded to the Minister. The Hon Mr

!Parr's reply was as follows 0 : — i i "In reply I desire to point out that my observations were of. a genera? i character and should not be construed : as reflecting on the Wanganui HospT- ■| til Board alone. I believe that I expressed the opinion that there was , reason to believe that many Hospital i Boards, while engaged in quite praiseworthy attempts to build up large and efficient base hospitals, often neglect- . ed to provide suitable accommodation > for the back country areas within their districts. I further stated that I thought the Department should supervise this aspect of the hospital boards' work more vigorously so as to remedy obvious injustices to country i settlers and rural workers. I "I may -now infom you that T can jsee no good reason to alter these i| views- I do not wish to criticise the? Wanganui Hospital Boarfl particularly, although I desire to observe thatr with respect to the proposal for a hospital at Raetihi, the Board has not exhibited as much "expedition as could be wished* My predecessor in office J approved. I believe, of the plans for jthe hospital and sanctioned the expenditure as far back as July of last ; year. A period of 15 months has elapsed and a start ha? not yet heen made. I recognise, of course, the difficulty in obtaining tenders, but notwithstanding this obstacle the building of the R*etihi Hospital should have been pushed on ere" now.

The Minister added that, he had promised the "chairman to assist in every way possible with the erection of the new hospital.

The chairman: Tin- only way he as-., ffi'sted was by sanctioning the increasein the cost from £4OOO to £BOOO,-. and for the Board to build the hospital itself.