ECONOMY URGED.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 51, Issue 133, 18 March 1931, Page 6

ECONOMY URGED.

HOSPITAL EXPENDITURE. SOUTH CANTERBURY BOARD. (Special to "The Guardian.") TIMARU, This Day. The special committee of the South Canterbury Hospital Board set up to inquire into possible salary and expenses reductions decided, in. a special report submitted to the Board yesterday and approved, that the Board's efforts be directed toward a reduction of general expenditure rather than a cut in wages. Reporting on salaries and wages, the report stated that the total estimated salaries and wages for 1931-32 amounted to £1.7,745., If nurses receiving £75 and under and other salaries subject to contracts and awards were excluded, there would remain a total of £12,506 for review. A 10 per cent, reduction would amount to £1250, but of this amount, on the basis of the provisional 1931-32 estimates and last year's subsidy, only £SOO would be available for reduction' of levies on local bodies; or, in other words, a. saving of .0053 of one penny for each £1 of rateable capital value". If all employees receiving £IOO ami under were excluded from the total of salaries and wages, the saving would be less. The committee's recommendation was: —"That the committee is firmly of opinion that the nursing staffs of our hospitals are not over-paid. That in our higher paid officers we haje by a process of elimination secured exceptional men worth, fully that which we pay them. That by no possible or just salary cut can we make an appreciable reduction in the levies of 1931-32. A 10 per cent, cut over all Avhom we can reduce, justly"or unjustly, would only mean to the owner of a £IOOO property a. saying of slightly under fivepence halfpenny. Wo therefore recommend that the'action of this Board be to notify that no request for any increase of salary will be entertained during the coming'financial year, and that this recommendation apply to increases authorised as from April 1, 1931. We suggest that the efforts of the Board be directed' toward a. reduction of general expenditure rather than a cut in wages." The committee recommended that the income limit should be removed in the dental department. All in-patients should be charged for all dental treatment, and fees should be payable in advance unless the secretary was satisfied that payment would amount to a hardship, when he be authorised to compound or remit the fees subject to confirmation by the Social Service Committee.

It was further recommended that •maternity fees be payable in advance, and authority vested in the secretary to compound or remit fees where financial circumstances warranted it, subject to confirmation by the Social Service Committee.

In regard to the Waipiata Sanatorium, it was recommended that so long as there was a waiting list and vacant beds were offered to the Board, they should be utilised irrespective of the quota provided 1 for in the estimates. "We suggest that at a time like the present special endeavours should be made to economise, and in this connection it is recommended that the treasurer be instructed to write to all controlling officers enjoining their cooperation to effect economies wherever possible, consistent with the efficient running of our institution," the report concluded. The report, was adopted.