KING GEORGE HOSPITAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 219, 13 September 1923, Page 8

KING GEORGE HOSPITAL.

WAIKATOS BAD BARGAIN. WITX COST .CVOOO A YKAK. (By Telegraph.—Own C"rresponflent.) ■HAMIiLTON. thi* day. I'ntil the beginning of the present financiul year the AVaikato Hospital Board paid tho Health Department a lump sum of £000 per annum for the upkeep of Waikato patients who happened to pass through thp Kin;? George. Hospital nt Kotorua. A new arrangement was. however, eoine to at the beginning of the present financial year, whereby the board agreed to take over control of the hospital and to charge at the rate of !>/ per day per patient. Tt was anticipated that tiie arrangement, which emanated from the Government, would be more beneficial to the board than the old oho When, however, the first statement o\ accounts reached the board to-day it showed that of tile £400 due in fees not a single penny had l>een collected This naturally caused a good deal ol comment by the board. The secretary (Mr. W. 1. Conradi) said that the sura was to be regarded as an average monthly loss. X was going to cost the board £;iOOO a year instead of £900, as formerly. Mr. J. Price (Mataniata) considered that the whole position required to h< thoroughly investigated. He had it or most reliable authority that patients or being discharged were told toy the off! cials that if they could not pay. tnej need not trouble. This was quite s wrong attitude, and certainly should b< strongly suppressed. A member: These men think becausi they are in Government jobs they an safe, no matter how they run the insti tution. The secretary of the board was in strutted to visit Rotorua and inquin into the position.