"PASSING IT ON" AGAIN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 97, 27 April 1938, Page 6

"PASSING IT ON" AGAIN.

Th« Auckland Hospital Board yesterday resolved to increase its levy on local bodies from £125,218 to £167,870. It was an automatic decision, necessitated mainly by "higher wages paid to a larger staff for working less hours, and higher prices." The board is able to say with truth that if the contributory local bodies had had the administration in their own hands they could not have avoided these increases in costs. For these the Government has the responsibility. The Government may say, also with truth, that the right of hospital workers to improvements in conditions and remuneration is no less than the right of other workers. The rise in hospital costs, in fact, is but a conspicuous case indicative of a Dominionwide tendency, the end of which cannot yet be foreseen. But the local bodies which must foot the bill which the Hospital Board draws up cannot allow the matter to rest there. Why should the burden of a Government decision that the community shall pay more for its hospital service fall almost exclusively on one class? That is a question which the Select Committee considering the proposed health insurance scheme should be asked to consider. So far it has not been made clear how the hospitals are to be financed under the scheme, but the local bodies should not lose the opportunity to declare their dissatisfaction with the present system.