The Daily News. THURSDAY, AUGUST 10. THE NEW HOSPITAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 41, 10 August 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, AUGUST 10. THE NEW HOSPITAL.

The chairman of the Clifton County Council and the chairman and other members of the Taranaki County Council have lately condemned the system under which the local bodies comprising' the hospital district of New Plymouth are called upon to contribute towards the cost of the proposed new hospital. Mr. Foreman considered the system unsatisfactory in that the local bodies had no voice in the appointment of members of hospital boards as formerly, and Mr. j Brown said the local bodies which raised the money should have a say in its expenditure. We cannot follow them. In the first place, the local bodies do j not provide the whole of the money, I either for maintenance or re-building, j They only furnish a portion, the bigger half of maintenance and half the cost of re-building being borne by the Consolidated Revenue. By the chairmen's own reasoning, those that provide the money should have a say in its expenditure. They do under the new system. The representatives of the county districts are elected by the ratepayers and are answerable to the ratepayers, just as county councillors are answerable to ratepayers. It may be true that, nominally, the local bodies have no voice in the appointment of members, but actually they have, and a pretty loud voice, as is shown by the, fact that the members of the present Hospital Board are practically nominees of the different contributing bodies. In any case, there is little fear that anybody but a representative mnn, enjoying the fullest confidence of the people, would be returned. The local bodies are really better off in this respect than they were under the old order of things, because their districts hnve greater representation on the Board. One councillor (and also a member of the Hospital Board) at the Taranaki County Council meeting stated that he had not got a grasp of the hospital affairs, that a programme was laid out for them, and they had to follow it. Does Mr. Hill, the councillor in question, wish us to believe that the authorities or the doctors can lead the Board, against their own judgment, in sucli an important matter as the erection of a building that is going to cost such a huge sum of money? Surely not! We cannot believe that such a capable, shrewd lot of men who comprise the present Board would permit themselves to be dominated bv anybody, or that they would sanction a scheme of the kind proposed unless they felt it imperatively necessary and good business. If they are only ornaments or automata to be used at the will of the authorities or the doctors it is time they gave way to a new set of men who would obey the dictates of their own judgment and do their duty by the electors regardless of any consideration or influence that might be brought to boar upon them. The fact of the matter is that the present hospital is inadequate and unsuitable. At the present moment the building is overcrowded, and is more often than not overcrowded —-it might be stated that the 1 hospital was originally built to accommodate 28 patients; at present there are 42 inmates—and it is impossible for the best work to be done in a hospital under congested conditions. It is really marvellous what the staff do do under the circumstances. Alterations and additions to the present building would be costly, and when completed it would be a patehed-up job at the best, so the Board, wisely, we think, determined upon a new building altogether, and one that would fulfil requirements for many years to come, utilising the present buildings as a home for incurables. The amount involved, from £25,000 to £30,000, seems very large, but for purselves we would never begfudge money

devoted to such a good purpose. The half J the ratepayers will be called upon •to I bear will not fall heavily upon them; indeed, they will scarcely feel it. The money can he borrowed at' a very low rate of interest, probably 3'/ s per cent., and the loan will be automatically extinguished in the course of fortytwo years. At the Taranaki County Council meeting, Cr. McAllum brought up the matter of men of moderate circumstances being refused admittance to | the hospital. In our view, it oannot be insisted upon too much by our public men that admittance to our public hospitals is the right and not a privilege of every person in the community, of high or low estate, and that any encroachment on this position should be resisted in every way possible. It may be that tho hospitals do not charge patients enough and that doctors are not sufficiently remunerated for their services, but this can easily be overcome by increasing the fees in the case of inmates who can afford to pay them and improving the salaries of the doctors, or obtaining the services of a resident doctor. Anything in this way rather than that the hospital should be regarded as a sort of charitable aid institution, which it distinctly is not.