THE THAMES HOSPITAL

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2497, 12 July 1888, Page 2

THE THAMES HOSPITAL

Dβ. Macgregob, Inspector-General of Hospitals, in his annual report, says of the Thames Hospital :—The Thames Hospital is a separate institution under the Act. Dr. Williams, the surgeon, receives a salary of £500 a year and a house, without the right of private practice. The head nurso gets £50, tmv nurses Ret £40 each, a cook, laundress, and an old patient who acts as gardener, complete the staff, which cost last year £868 tis 4d in salaries alone. The total expenditure for the year was £2210 153 7d, from which must be deducted £317 17s Id for relief and buildings, leaving £1024 12s 2d for supplies, and of this the drug bill amounted to £160 18s Bd. At the time of my visit there were 10 patients in the Hospital, but ic must be added that at times this number is increased considerably. The mere juxtaposition of these figures for salaries and supplies, reveals a most extraordinary state of things, the explanation of which is to be found in the fact that the trustees have thrown open the outdoor department of the Hospital to all persons whatsoever, whether rich or poor, who are willing to pay 5a petweek for advice and medicine. Tho result is that the general body of the taxpayers of the colony have, through the Government subsidy, to contribute towards giving cheap medical advice to the Thames people, by enabling the trustees to uuriorsol! the local medical men by the competition of a salaried officer, and by the same means towards injuring the druggists, and undermining the self-respect of the people. During 1887 there were treated on these terms 1339 individual patients, with 3357 attendances. lam informed that in order to leave Dr. Williams free to overtake this rapidly increasing demand for his services on these terms tho trustees desire to relieve himof all charitable aid work, which they want the local doctors, whom they are starving out, to undertake. I have singled out this hospital simply to illustrate a tendency that pervades the whole hospital system of the colony in a mere or lass parked degree."