HOSPITAL LEVIES.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 May 1920, Page 4

HOSPITAL LEVIES.

At the last meeting of the Egmont County Council exception -was taken to the increase in the amount of the Hospital levy for the current year, and it was argued that those who used the hospital should be made to pay. The chairman, however, did not think the working man with a family should be "insulted" by having a bill sent to him. It is obvious that were the Board to give free hospital treatment to the workers, who naturally .constitute the greatest number of inmates, the contributing bodies would require to meet still heavier levies.. Last year, it so happens, was a record one for collections, 55 per cent, of the accounts being collected. As for the wealthy being called upon to pay according to their means, this no doubt they would gladly do, but few of them, as things stand, have any option—they are directed to private hospitals and not to the public hospital. Our opinion is that the public hospital should be accessible to all, no matter what one's financial position might be, for the sufficient reason that no private hospital can be expected to have the same facilities as the public institution. To bring such a condition about the present basis of payment of the medical officers would require to be altered. .At present they are being paid salaries quite incommensurate with the value of their services, but there is no reason why differential rates should not be asked ■of those in a position to pay, and by this means provide the wherewithal to pay more adequate salaries to the doctors. Thus the Board would be placed in an independent position and ratepayers, no matter what their position in life, could claim as a right what is now in many cases denied them. During the war the local doctors gave their services to the hospital almost gratis. It was their contribution towards the cause. Now the position is different. They are

being paid salaries, thougli, as we have said, inadequate ones. The nurses, too, have had their salaries increased by about 33 per cent., which ia altogether insufficient considering the altered value of money. Qualified nurses are only receiving £IOO a year now. If they had a trade union they might easily justify a claim for double the amount. The cost of supplies has risen like Everything else. A case in point: Cotton'gauze in 1914 could be bought for 9/6 per 100 yards; it is now 455. At the same time no increase has been made in the patients' fees. It therefore stands to reason that the contributing bodies must provide more money. There is no get away from it, if ithe hospital is to be maintained in an efficient state. Indeed, local bodies must be prepared for further increases unless commodities come down in price. A suggestion was made that Egmont should cut away and run its own hospital, but the same conditions would apply and, we fear, that instead of obtaining relief, the Egmont ratepayers would be saddled with even heavier charges, with hospital facilities far inferior to those they enjoy at present.