THE TUAPEKA AND DUNSTAN HOSPITALS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume II, Issue 103, 29 January 1870, Page 5

THE TUAPEKA AND DUNSTAN HOSPITALS.

COMPARATIVE STATEMENT. The following comparative statement of the receipts and expenditure of the two principal goldfields hospitals will be interesting to many of our readers who value these really deserving institutions. We take the figures quoted below from the Tuapeka Hospital M.S. report now lying before us, and the report of the Dunstan Hospital as it appears in the "Dunstan Times" and the "Cromwell Argus," also lying before us : —

Totals - - £1546 6 0 £1945 13 0 In the item of "Salaries" for Tuapeka two important things must be considered — Ist, the sum of £801 above noted includes £78 wages for a gardener for twelve months ; and 2nd, domestic attendance is not given the doctor at Tuapeka, as is the case at the Dunstan. It will be observed that in the above quotations we avoid the incidental expenses, which we find are almost the same in both institutions. We also omit all expenses such as improvements, &c, and merely give those items which are absolutely necessary for the maintenance of the hospital. The great difference between these totals, especially in the case of the expenditure, naturally suggests the question, Is the number of patients treated in the Dunstan Hospital so very much larger than in that of Tuapeka as will v account for these differences ? Far from

it. The reports before us show the following :—: — TUAPEKA. DUNSTAN. Admitted during the year, including the number in the Hospital on January Ist, 1869 --. 160 ... 116 This makes the case against the Dnnstan Hospital apparently still worse. It is evident the Committee of Management of that institution conduct their business in a very luxuriant manner, or the Committee of the Tuapeka Hospital act niggardly in the extreme. From the figures above quoted, we are inclined to think the Dunstan Hospital must be the most hospitable of the two. The medical comforts of that institution, as represented by the sum of £203 for wines and £51 for drugs, against £172 paid by the Tuapeka Hospital for these two items, bear us out in this opinion. Why, in Tuapeka, the hospital receives nearly as much from the sale of pigs, that eat up the waste, as the Dunstan Hospitalreceivesfrompayingpatients. The Dunstan must either be a very poor place, or patients there who are in a position to pay make it a principle not to do so. The above statement proves to us very strongly that our local institution is under good management. Long may it bear as favourable a comparison with any similar institution as it does with the Dunstan.

tJWJXIUI Id, Subscriptions Paying patients - Sale of pigs TUAPEKA. • £520 11 6 - 186 1 6 • 24 0 0 DUNSTAN. £478 12 2 35 10 0 Totals - - £730 13 0 £514 2 2 EXPENDITURE. TOAPEKA. DUNSTAN. Salaries - - - £801 13 6 £732 4 6 Rations - • - 423 6 5 681 7 0 Fuel, &c. - - - 107 31 " 167 17 9 Medicine and medical comforts. - - 172 10 9 SVines, £203 135. 9d. ; drugs, £51 45. 4s. - 254 18 1 Printing & stationery 20 17 9 66 13 8 [nterments - - 20 14 6 42 12 0