HOSPITAL FEES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 267, 8 November 1923, Page 5

HOSPITAL FEES.

£28 PAID, £1150 OWES. POSITION AT HAMILTON. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondents HAMILTON, this day. Some time ago Mr. Price, a member of the Waikato Hospital Board, complained that patients at King George Hospital were told that if they could not pay their fees they need not bother. The Inspector-General inquired into the position and in reply forwarded an answer from the medical superintendent of the institution (Dr. W. Stanley Wallis) to the Hospital Board to-day, in which lie stated tlr.it he held a fruaranj tee of payments of fees, personal or otherwise, from every patient admitted to -the hospital, and every prospective patient whom he interviewed was carefully questioned regarding his ability to pay, and he denied that any patient had been told that if he could not pay he need not trouble. The officials of the institution did all they conld to assist the board in the collection of fees. Mr. Campbell Johnstone paid that the figures spoke for themselves, and it appeared to him that absolutely no attempt had been made by the hospital authorities to collect fees, as only £2S had been gathered in out of £1150 owing. Mr. Price said that he made his former statement on very good authority, and since the report appeared in the papers he had been approached by an ex-patient of the institution, who said he had never been asked for his I fees. The secretary stated that lie had recently visited the King George Hospital, and had arranged for a proper system of collection. |