HOSPITAL BENEFITS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 June 1939, Page 6

HOSPITAL BENEFITS

CRITICISM OF GOVERNMENT PROPOSALS NEW BURDEN FOR WORKERS PERCEIVED. I ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT’S VIEW. (By Telegraph—Press Association.} DUNEDIN, June 19. “A new meaning has been given by the Government to the word ‘benefits,’ ” said the president of the Hospital Boards’ Association, Mr J. W. Dove, who is also chairman of the Otago Board, when asked to state his views about the hospital benefits scheme which is announced to come into operation on July 1. “People need not delude themselves into thinking that 6s a day is all that has to be paid,” said Mr Dove, “because the balance has to be found, and by whom? I venture to say that most ratepayers arc workers, so that it is they who will have to find the difference between the 6s named under the Social Security Act and the actual cost of maintenance. TAXES ON RATEPAYERS. “This means a direct tax on ratepayers through local rates and an indirect tax by reason of payment of the balance from the Consolidated Fund. “Consequently treatment at hospital will not be free, except to those who are, for 'the time being, patients.” The matter of the payment of outpatient fees, said Mr Dove, had been brought to the notice of the Minister, Mr Fraser, by Mr J. Glover, vice-pre-sident, and Mr E. Cameron, secretary, of the Hospital Boards’ Association, at a conference in Wellington, because no provision had been made for this in the regulations. The Minister had expressed his desire to protect members of the profession in this connection and agreed that charges as previously levied by the respective boards should be continued. Another very heavy burden, not hitherto placed upon the ratepayer. Mr Dove said, but which would need to be borne in the near future, was the payment of fees to those members of the medical profession who had always acted in an honorary capacity. “What the extent of this payment will be the administrators of hospitals have no idea, but it is highly probable that it will represent a very heavy charge upon the ratepayer and taxpayer,” he said. PAYMENT OF DOCTORS. Negotiations have already been undertaken by Mr Dove with one of the northern boards which has an honorary staff, but, because there are nine others with similar staffs who have not been approached, the whole question of remuneration in respect of the 10 staffs has been referred to a conference between excutivs of the Hospital Boards’ Association and the British Medical Association on July 3. The question of the payment of 6s a day, Mr Dove said, had been under consideration for months past. When the Minister at the conference in New Plymouth requested the boards to assist the Government in every way possible, representatives of boards had met at the earliest moment in conference with representatives of the Health Department in Wellington, and a joint report had been presented to the Government by Mr Dove, as chairman of the association. In this report a strong case had been made out in favour of the payment of 7s 6d a day, but naming a minimum of 7s a day. When the case was presented to Messrs Nash and Fraser, the former said that, in his opinion, the basis claim was very fair. “That being the case,” concluded Mr Dove, “we still contend that 6s a day is too little.” OPERATION OF SCHEME. NO REGULATIONS RECEIVED IN WAIRARAPA. “So far we have received no instructions or regulations regarding the treatment in hospital of patients under the Social Security scheme,” said Mr Norman Lee, Managing-Secretary of the Wairarapa Hospital Board this morning. “My own opinion,” he said, “is that it is not going to be very difficult, as far as I can see to put the scheme into operation, provided the regulations are in any way reasonable.”