HOSPITAL FINANCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 July 1938, Page 7

HOSPITAL FINANCE

CONDITIONS UNDER NEW POLICY. PAYMENT OF 6s PER BED PER DAY. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The free hospital or sanatorium treatment for all benefit is intended to comprise full relief frbm personal liability in respect of hospital care received in or at public hospitals and sanatoria in addition to partial relief from personal liability for care received in private hospitals, the National Health and Superannuation Committee states in its report. A uniform rate of payment from th,? social security fund of 6s per day per occupied bed is proposed, and, in respect of treatment in public hospitals, hospital boards would be required to accept this in full satisfaction of the cost of care given. This proposal met with very general approval, it is added.. The amount suggested will mean an aggregate saving to the contributory local authorities of hospital boards of £200,000, and a similar amount to the Consolidated Fund annually. The estimated average amount of in-patient fees collected from individuals at the present time for an occupied bed in a public hospital or a sanatorium is £4B 2s annually, or 2s 8d a’ day. The proposal of the Government wil mean a payment of £lO9 10s annually. While it is appreciated that some hospitals have been more fortunate than others in the collection of fees and have succeeded, in some cases, in obtaining an amount almost as great as that offered by the Government, the vast majority of hospitals will receive a substantial benefit from this proposal. The boards will also receive about £40,000 additional in respect of maternity services.