HOSPITAL FINANCE. i

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 183, 2 August 1923, Page 4

HOSPITAL FINANCE. i

I ! In his annual report the DirectorGeneral of Health makes some important ' remarks about hospital finance. He be- , lieves, and we think he is right, that', there is extravagance in capital ex-: 1 penditure on hospitals. Every million j' so spent means, he says, a permanent i j annual maintenance expenditure of from ' j £25,000 to £30,000. If we add to this > interest payments calculated at five per ' cent, every million of capital spent means an annual expenditure of from ' £79,000 to £80,000. It is necessary,! therefore, that every proposal to spend more capital on hospitals should be most carefully scrutinised before it is author- ' iaed. The Hospital Commission of two j, years ago made important observations : about 'finance, including the collection and size of fees, the purchase of supplies, and provision for paying off loans, but for the most part its recommendations seem to be gathering dust in the Government pigeon-holes. One of its recommendations, to which Dr. Valintine refers, is that in the case of stone and ' brick buildings loans should be paid off ' in 20 years, and in the case of wooden buildings in ten years. Dr. Valintine believes that a saving of capital expenditure could be made by reducing the average time that a patient spends in hospital. The average stay is 40 days, which he thinks is absurd, and he suggests it might be reduced to even less than twenty without detriment. The point is important, for it is the overcrowding of hospitals that causes demands for extensions. We should be sorry to see all hospitals managed from Wellington, but the Health Department ' acts as a useful watchdog in scrutinising and criticising the methods of the Boards.