HOSPITAL TREATMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 198, 19 August 1908, Page 2

HOSPITAL TREATMENT.

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.) HAWERA, Tuesday. A conference of delegates representing flic 2Jew Plymouth, Stratford, and Ha° wera Hospital Boards met at Hawera to-day. Dr. Valintine and the medical superintendents of the hospitals interested attended. Their recamxnendations incinded that patients able to pay the ordinary cost of medical and surgical attendance shall not be admitted to hospitals on the same terms as the ordinary patients. This was adopted, with the provision that the Board fix the maximum charge vhich may be imposed. The doctors' request to be allowed the privilege to charge full fees for attendance on patients in hospitals able to pay full medical fees was rejected. Resolutions were passed that having in view the fact that every member of the community contributes directly or indirectly, I or both, to the erection and maintenance of public hoepitais, this conference affirms that any person is entitled to claim admission to such hospitals for treatment as a matter of right, and not privilege or charity; that the conference approves that patients from one hospital district desirous of being' treated' in the hospital of another district shall be admitted to such hospital on the recommendation of the Board of such hospital district; that the conference approves of the principle that as far as possible patients should be treated in hospitals in their separate districts; that delegates recommend to their boards a new scale of charges, to be 6/- per diem for local patients, and 7/- for those from outside districts.