NO MORE NEEDED.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 42, 19 February 1927, Page 10

NO MORE NEEDED.

NEW ZEALAND'S HOSPITALS. DOMINION STANDARD IS HIGH COST STEADILY GROWING. (By Telegraph.—Pres? Association.l lIAWERA, Friday. A new public hospital providing for 80 patients, was opened this afternoon by the Minister of Health, Hon. J. A. Young. Mr. Young said hospital expenditure throughout the Dominion was steadily increasing. Seventy-three per cent of the revenue of hospital boards was derived from the public funds. The cost of hospital treatment averaged about 15/3 a day for each patient and the charges made by boards averaged 9/ a day. but only an average of 3/0 was collected. Contributions from the public funds, levies and subsidies had risen from f443,000 in 1014-15 to £1,238.000 for 1925-26, while the expenditure per head of population had risen from 7/0 to 20/5. The number of available beds per 1000 of population was 5.4 as against 3.4 in 1014-15. Since that year 40 new hospitals had been opened, in addition to extensions to existing institutions. The Director-General of Health, Dr. T. 11. A. Valintinc, said the standard of the hospitals in New Zealand was high and compared more than favourably with the standard of European institutions. Provision was made in New Zealand for live beds per 1000 of population, while the United Kingdom provided one bed per 1000. No other part of Europe, with the probable exception of Denmark, could even reacli the latter standard. Dr. Valintine sounded a note of warning regarding expenditure which during the next few years would have to be as light as possible. There was ro further need for new hospitals in the Dominion, During the afternoon a memorial tablet to the late Mr. W. A. Parkinson was unveiled by Miss 11. M. Page, granddaughter of tiie donor, under whose bequest the entrance columns to the new hospital were provided. »