PAPAROA HOSPITAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 200, 25 August 1933, Page 3

PAPAROA HOSPITAL.

MEDICAL SUBSIDY WANTED

NEW BOARD MEMBER ELECTED.

(By Telegraph. —Own Correspondent.)

PAPAROA, this day.

. <U the special meeting of the Otamatea County Council to-day to consider hospital matters, Mr. E. T. Birtles was appointed Otamatea member on the board in place of the late Mr. M. .N. Skelton. . The council, while expressing approval of the plan suggested by the Minister of Health to keep the hospital open, and its desire to assist in the successful working of the new plan, expressed concern in that, as no provision was made to subsidise a doctor, the district might thue lose the services of the present medical superintendent. It was resolved to urge the Kaipara Hospital Board to use every effort to retain the services of the superintendent, either by continued subsidy or otherwise. The rearrangement of the hospital district boundary was also considered, and it was resolved to request that the transfer of Otamatea County from Kaipara to Whangarei be referred to the commission as prescribed in the Act, and that a request be made to the Whangarei County Council to support the alteration of boundaries, the request, to be forwarded to the Minister of Health.

It was stated that, as the Minister had not given his consent to the closing of the Paparoa Hospital, it was understood that it would carry on under the present staff pending consideration of a new plan of working. Mr. Collins said that Hobson members on the Kaipara Hospital Board were not unsympathetic with the interests of the Paparoa Hospital, but felt driven by pressure from the Health Department, which was urging them to economise in their estimates by closing the Paparoa institution.