HOSPITAL FEES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 June 1939, Page 6

HOSPITAL FEES

WAIRARAPA BOARD COLLECTIONS WELL UP TO DOMINION STANDARD. LARGE SUMS NECESSARILY WRITTEN OFF. Some remarks had been reported, the chairman of the Wairarapa Hospital Board (Mr H. H. Mawley) observed at the meeting of that body yesterday, which would lead people to believe that the board did not try to collect fees from patients. That was not the case at all. “With regard to writing off hospi • tai fees, a public hospital is a chari • table institution and treats mainly the indigent, aged and infirm sick people," said Mr N. Lee, Managing-Secretary. “Further, the Health Department returns show over a period of years that the fees collections for hospitals controlled by the Wairarapa board compare favourably with the average collections of other boards. The Social Security Act authorities have repeatedly stated that the average fee collections are 2s Bid per occupied bed per day. Many factors must be taken into consideration when considering fees due by hospital patients. There are no two hospitals whose conditions as regards patients, service and medical staffing are similar. Any comparison, therefore, can only be an approximation. “Hospital charges throughout the Dominion vary from 9s to 15s per day.” Mr Lee added. “If the minimum is taken for the purpose of comparison, the maintenance fees chargeable per occupied bed is equivalent to £164 per annum. If the average collections are deducted from fees chargeable the deficiency amounts to approximately £l2O per occupied bed per annum and unless a considerable proportion of this sum is written off annually a large fictitious asset will be established. “The total average occupied hospital beds for all institutions controlled by this board approximates 160; therefore it is not unreasonable for the board to write off at least £17.600 worth of fees without taking into consideration fees charged for patients in T.B. Sanatoria, other hospitals, or Old People’s Home.” Following are some of the amounts that were written off by the board for the year ending March 31 last: —Pensioners, Old Age, £1,959 4s 7d; invalidity, £2,471 16s Id; war, £304 16s 3d; widows, £264 15s 6d; charitable aid, £924 Is fid; indigent, £5,682 10s 8d; sustenance. £1.170 13s 6d; staff. £1.395 13s; Dead Letter Office, £1.909 19s. “We are bound by law to make a charge in all cases, but time and tim* again we know that the fees will have to be written off,” said Mr Mawley. have noticed, and so have other members of the board, that the average wage-earner with two children seldom has to have a fee written off. But those people with four or more children are placed in a different position altogether.” Mr J. F. Thompson pointed out that the standard of collections was much higher than in the past and was also probably one of the best in the Dominion. The discussion then lapsed.