PRIVATE WARDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 243, 13 October 1936, Page 19

PRIVATE WARDS.

AT STATE HOSPITALS. ADVANTAGES OF SYSTEM. «RICHER PAY FOR POORER." 1 (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, October 2. Wherever there are hospitals, sooner or later a controversy is bound to arise regarding the modern tendency to increase the number of private rooms and "intermediate" wards at the expense of the accommodation available for the general public. During the past month this question has forced itself to the;front again here, and the Hospitals Commissioner has taken a very decided line about it. The view held by most of the hospital authorities here 011 this subject was set forth clearly and emphatically by the "Sunday Sun," a few weeks ago: — "Four years' trial of the community hospital system has convinced the authorities that the financial problem of hospitals in New South Wales can be solved only by more intensive provision of intermediate and private wird accommodation." There seems to be 110 doubt that "the public demand for intermediate ward accommodation is increasing year by year," as large numbers of well-to-do people come to realise that they can get better treatment tlinn the average hospital patient by paying more for it. Of course, the hospital authorities favour private and intermediate wards, because of the financial benefits that they provide, for, the institution. I Mr. Otton, who is superintendent of the Hospitals Commission here, has | pointed out that intermediate wards, in particular, serve the purposes of patients who cannot afford . the luxury of a. private room, but desire more privacy than they can obtain in the ordinary public ward. The minimum charge in an intermediate ward here is 0/ per day, and as most of the patients are subscribers to the metropolitan hospital fund, which pays 7/ a day, the subscriber patient gets these special advantages for 2/ per day extra. Also the Act prevents medical men from charging the intermediate ward patient more than 50 per cent of the fees charged to private ward patients. Obvious Advantages. The advantages of a system which provides private and intermediate accommodation for wealthier patients on such terms should be obvious enough. As the "Sun" has pointed but, these accessory wards "aid hospital finances and concentrate the resources of surgery instead of scattering them." The ideal method of hospital organisation, it contends, is "to concentrate all cases in the public hospitals and to make the private wards a source of revenue for the general needs of the institution." As Mr. Fitzsimmons (now Minister of Health) puts it, "the richer pay for the poorer," and this is the principal reason that has induced the Hospital Commission to decide that all modern hospitals ought to supply such facilities, if only for the financial benefits that accrue from them. Just now the plans of the Hospital Commission include extensions for several of our leading institutions— Royal Prince Alfred, Balmain, St. George, Canterbury, Parramatta, Manly, Hornsby, Ryde—and in each case proVi- | sion is to be made for intermediate and private wards on a considerable scale. Yot in spite of the manifest advantages of this "mixed" system, and the support it is now receiving, strong opposition has been raised against it in ccr-' tain quarters. Mr. Weaver was Minister of Health till he was ejected by Mr. | Stevens from the Cabinet, 011 account | of his quarrel with the British Medical Association, and it is quite possible that his outlook has been affected by these unpleasant experiences. However this may be, Mr. Weaver has warned Parliament and the public that this policy of providing more and more accommodation at our hospitals for the comparatively wealthy may lead in the long run to the virtual exclusion of "the suffering poor." This, of course, represents the exaggeration of a principle' which, operating within reasonable limits, may be most salutary in its effects. There is no excuse for shutting the poor out of public hospitals, but there is sound reason for providing facilities, and even luxuries, at hospitals for which the rich would willingly pay, to the lasting benefit of the whole community.