HOSPITAL SYSTEM.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 48, Issue 154, 11 April 1928, Page 6

HOSPITAL SYSTEM.

THE MINISTER'S ATTITUDE. (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, April 10. i statement of considerable interest concerning the hospital system of New Zealand was made by the Minister of Health (the Hon. J. A. \oung) to-day, when his comment was sought • on> a message from Auckland dealing with the result of the New Zealand delegation's visit to the first congress ot the Australian College of Surgeons, which recently concluded at Canberra. According to the message, the congress passed recommendations m favour of community hospitals and tr-e New Zealand delegation had been commissioned to interview the Minister ot Health and 1 the Director-General of Health on the subject. The Minister, in answer to a qucs tion by the interviewer, said he would b* pleased to receive the delegation. "Asked whether he had any comment to make on the recommendations and the several matters referred to m the message, Mr Young said he had nothing to say beyond tliis: That whatever changes were suggested in the hospital system of New Zealand, the public could rest assured that, as far as he was concerned, he would set his face firmly against any movement, calculated" to pauperise the care and treatment of the sick and injured in the public hospitals of the Dominion.

HONORARY STAFFS. DR. VALENTINE'S OPINION. WELLINGTON, April 10. The svstem of maintaining honorarystaffs at public hospitals is condemned in very plain language by a survey ot the field isued by the Health Department in its appendix to the annual report on health matters in the DommThe New Zealand ' hospital system having evolved from a now obsolete voluntary system under which the hospitals depended upon voluntary rebel and services and donations from the charitably disposed, it follows that there should be relics of these days, states the report. Amongst those which linger is the system of maintaining an honorary staff in many hospitals, especially in the larger centres. The Director-General of Health, however, expresses his opinion that the time has come for the abolition of the honorary staff, and that, as hospitals are open to all, it is not right to expect the services of the medical profession in an honorary capacity. "It is difficult to see what other conclusion could have been come to," continues the report. "The honorary system is suitable only for hospitals treating pauper patients, and it is not to be expected that the medical profession should give their services free unless some quid pro quo in the form of a voice in hospital policy and administration were given them. The engagement of any other class of emplovee on such an understanding, howevei-, would be absurd and unbusinesslike, and it seems just as unbusinesslike in the case of the medical staff. "The British Medical Association appear to favour the open hospital system. They are apparently prepared to continue to give their services free in the public wards provided that the Hospital Boards will erect private vards where they can treat their private patients. The tendency of the Boards appears to be opposed to this suggestion, and they ai.pear generally to favour the closed" hospital. . . The : Department itself admits the logic ot the payment of the medical staff, and has not signified its concurrence with the open system." _