SOCIAL SECURITY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 40, 17 February 1939, Page 6

SOCIAL SECURITY

PLANNING THE WORKING OF THE ACT HOSPITAL BOARDS ACTIVE When the Social Security Act comes to full fruition, particularly that portion relating to free medical and hospital treatment, the scope of the work of hospitals will be greatly widened. It will oe necessary to frame new regulations governing the work and general administration of hospitals. The first steps to frame the new regulations are being taken in Wellington to-day, when representatives of the New Zealand Hospital Boards’ Association will confer with officials of the Department of Health. Mr. W. E. Broderick, chairman of the Wanganui Hospital Board, who is a member of the executive of the Hospital Boards’ Association, left . esterday for Wellington. Speaking to a meeting of the Wanganui Hospital Board yesterday, he said that the conference he was to attend would mark the first step toward arranging the working of the social security scheme. So far as hospital boards were concerned the amount of work involved in medical and health benefits under the Act would be considerable. Other members of the executive are the Hon. W. A. Mclntyre, M.L.C., and Mr. J. Gower, Wellington. The services of Mr. J. Phillips, Palmerston North, Mr. A. Prentice, Christchurch, Mr. A. Jacobsen, Dunedin, and Dr. A. D. Nelson, Christchurch, had been coopted to assist the executive in planning the working of the Act, particularly in relation to staff changes and how soon they can be made, accommodation and the question as to what patients should be admitted to hospitals and what patients treated outside hospitals in their own homes. “The problem of what patients shall be treated is an urgent one, as, at. present there is a shortage of 1000 beds in New Zealand hospitals," Mr. Broderick said. “In dealing with these questions we, as an executive, feel that, as the social security scheme is now law, it will be our duty to help the Government all we can, irrespective ot political or personal opinions. It is going to be a big job and we can only accomplish it by co-operat've effort.”