LABOUR PARTY AND THE HOSPITAL.

Auckland Star, Issue 111, 13 May 1935, Page 6

LABOUR PARTY AND THE HOSPITAL.

The whole Labour policy in regard to the management of the hospital is decidedly one of reform of administration. The proposal to replace the present honorary staff with a stipendiary one is of vital interest to both patients and public. The Waikato Hospital is the fourth largest in New Zealand, having 274 beds, as against Auckland's 025, and it* maintenance costs are £44,291, while Auckland's costs are £124.902 (appendix to Health Department's report, 1934). These figure themselves, and this is only one of the facts which show that the Labour proposal of a. paid staff instead of an honorary one is sound and reasonable. That the eminent surgeons and physicians would require to he paid adequate salaries need not be argued, for if statistics are to be believed, that expenditure would be more than balanced by the resultant saving. The new members of the Hospital Hoard are well aware of their responsibility to both patients and public, and if by any means in our power we can improve the conditions and make it the most efficient and 'best-run institution in New Zealand, as it is the largest, the objective of the Labour members will have been achieved.

I. M. BENFEI.L, J.P.