The Daily News THURSDAY, AUGUST 20. HOSPITAL AFFAIRS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 206, 20 August 1908, Page 2

The Daily News THURSDAY, AUGUST 20. HOSPITAL AFFAIRS.

"Having in view tlic fact Unit i every member of. the community contributes, directly or indirectly, or 'Uolli, to tlic erection and maintenance of public hospitals, tills con- | ierence ulliruis that any person is | entitled to claim admission to such hospitals for treatment as a AIATTKH OF ltliaiT, and KOX of IUUVILEUE or UIAIUTY." This most important allinnation of the underlying principle of public institutions, carried at Tuesday's conference of Taranaki Hospital Boards at llawera, should set the public at rest respecting the relations existing between tliemseives and the institutions they have provided, lu referi'iug-.to- this question on Tuesday, we strongly urged Iha I

there must be no suspicion of accepting charity attaching to any one who might, through misfortune, have to seek the skilled surgical, medical, and musiiig attention provided in a public hospital. We are, therefore, gratified tkat the representatives of the several Hospital Boards in the province should so soon thereafter fully endorse tliis principle,

which, it is alleged, lias only recently been violated by at least one medical superintendent in the province. In this particular ease, as was nointed out l>)

a Stratford delegate, the medical superintendent had twice refused to admit a case, on the ground that the mother of the sick child could afford to pay for treatment in a private hospital, although the mother had stated she cou.a not do so. This particular doctor, \ve have no hesitation in saying, altogether exceeded his duty, which appertains solely—and especially as he is a salaried officer of the hospital—to the medical and not the financial side of the institution. In the face, of the resolution

now carried, and governing all cases of admission, the superintendent referred to must either admit the case, should application again be made for admittance, or'resign his position, which would otherwise become intolerable to himself, the Board, ami the public.

Another ' important recommendation adopted by the conference was Unit with reference to hospital fees, which it is now proposed should be raised from 4s to Gs per day. So far as the local hoard is concerned, we have little dutiin that the new scale will be adopted and put into operation without delay. Tin: su"gested increase is only a fair and reasonable one, bused on the oidinai,\ . avera"c cost of maintenance, and as such lias our entire support. At the same time, we consider the conference should have gone further and laid it down as a principle and an instruction to secretaries that any person not in a position to pay the feed, or on whose dependants the payment would entail hardship,.should he admitted distinct.y on the understanding that the treatment was free. No doubt there ire cases in which 110 demand is made tenpayment, but. 011 the other hand, people are sometimes ••dunned" for a hospital debt which they call only liquidate by putting themselves into debt to thenbutcher and their baker. Wherever there is a case of a patient 01 expatient being ill a position to pay tor treatment, and liis gratitude and honoi are not suilicienl to prompt him to send alon« his cheque, then compulsion mar be applied with perfect justice. Hut the case of the ordinary working man is different. '-Neither lie nor any one else, for the matter of that, incurs a hospital debt willingly; it is one that misfortune thrusts upon him, and asucli cannot be regarded as an civil debt.

What we desire to have emphasised is that pel-sous to whom the ''cost of lnin.r" problem is a pressing _ one need never have a moment's hesitation in applying for admission to the hospital, or feel that they are under any semblance Of debt other than one of gratitude in accepting free treatment. \V itli respect to tlie restrictions proposed to be placed oil would-be patients desiring to be treated in a hospital other than the one in their own district, morally there may lie some justification lor them, but. humanely the position cannot be defended. More particularly would this be the case where a patient were willing and able to pay the is pel dav fee proposed. In the ordinary course of events, it would seem natural that a sult'ercr would prefer to seek admission to hi* own hospital, but it he whims otherwise, his whim is one that shoukt be humored. There is usually more reason than caprice, howeyi, H. such a desire on his part, and it is a significant commentary on the providence of this inclination on p-.irt of provincial residents that the Stiatford and Hawera Boards should feei compelled to fake steps to reduce lie nii"ration of patients from their districts to New Plymouth. It only goes to prove the contention we have always advanced, that it is mistaken policy to establish full-lledged public hospitals where cottage-hospitals would answer the purpose. These hospitals having been established, however, and having to be maintained at considerable cost to the public, should, so far as possible, be made to fulfil their functions; but ii is humanely wrong that ;i hospital board should dictate to any person ante and v.illing, as we stated before, to pay his w.iv as to which hospital he shall attend,' and particularly if the institution he chooses is willing to receive him.

It is almost impossible to Irame regulations that may not be abused, and there will always be those, though happily a minority, who will endeavor to circumvent obligations of honor. To endeavor, however, to put restrictions 011 this class of patients might just as easily lead to abuse'aud injustice 111 the other direction, and it is better that the needs of the manv should be safeguarded rather than that, in differentiating, unintentional wrong might be m licted. It might be somewhat of a hardship on the comparatively gratuitous services of the medical men, hut in the aggregate we doubt whether the abuse of hospitals is such as to make an appreciable dillere'nee to the incomes of the doctors, whose positions, in Xew Zealand at least, are such that to tliem the problem of "the cost of living" is a meaningless phrase. We lielieve the doctors, whose representations on these questions have not proved altogether abortive, will be quite satisfied that no longer is every patient to be treated at a loss to Hie institution and the ratepayers.