PUBLIC HOSPITALS.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 June 1922, Page 6

PUBLIC HOSPITALS.

LARGE INCREASE IN COSTS. SOME INTERESTING FIGURES. In the course of his monthly report to Tuesday’s meeting of the Stratford Hospital Board, the chairman (Mr. C. D. Sole) produced some very interesting figures relative. to the hospitals of the Dominion and their administration. The report stated, inter alia: Matters in regard to the administration of the Stratford Hospital are fairly - satisfactory. The financial position of | the board is fairly satisfactory, but the question of outstanding accounts requires consideration. Great care will have to be taken that only persons residing in our district are admitted to the institution except in urgent cases, and as our fees are the lowest in Taranaki to-day I beg to recommend that all persons not qualified as residents be charged a minimum fee of 12s per day to cover the actual cost entailed in their keepTo let the general public and also our members know how the public hospitals have expanded afid the greatly enhanced expenditures during the past few years have increased, I have drawn up a few items. In 1914 it cost on an aggregate £25 per occupied bed for provisions. In 1920 it had increased to £47 4s per bed, surgery : nd dispensary from £lO 7s to £l7 Is, domestic and establishment from £27 to £5 5s 9d, salaries and wages f'om £43 5s to £6B ss, while the -whole cost of maintenance had gone up from £lO6 2s to £lBB 9a per occupied bed. Charitable aid in 1916 cost the country £113,643, and in 1920-21 it had risen to £190,416. In 1911-12 the total cost of hospital and charitable aid for the Dominion was £482,645 on a mean population of 1,109,984, or 9s ssd per head of the population, but in 1920-21, with an increase of 80,000 people in the ten years, the expenditure had increased to £1,284,350. or 21s 6d per head —more then double —while the administration expenses fell from 4.4 to 3.4 of the total expenditure. In 1911, 24,681 persons were under treatment in the various hospitals, but in 1920-21 they had increased to 50,912, or on a population basis, from 24.21 to 42-6 per thousand. The highest percentage of paying patients, strange to say, is in Christchurch, while Wanganui and Timaru are very low. North Canterbury collected 84 per cent and Stratford 75 per cent., while Wanganui, Timaru and others were under 30 per cent, and of a necessity the rates are high. The total cost of our own hospital compares favorably with the other institutions throughout the Dominion. The total liability of the board at present is about £2500 and the total assets £14,564, without considering the rate 7 able asset of the district, while the rate struck is 0.155 of a penny in the £1 on the rateable capital value of the district, and owing to the increased value and decreased population our subsidy has been reduced to 12s 3d.

Speaking to the report the chairman said the figures showed that the hospitals were being and were going to be used more and more.

Mr. Thomson said the public generally were indebted to Mr. Sole for his report. Mr. Sole said a fair conclusion to be drawn from the figures supplied was that the public were, making more use of the public hospitals.

Mr Thomson wondered if the increase in the number of patients was due to lower virility in the later immigrants as compared with the old class. On the motion of Mr. Thomson, the chairman was accorded a vote of thanks for his report.