The Bay of Plenty Times SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 1946 SHOWDOWN MUST COME

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXIV, Issue 14045, 27 April 1946, Page 2

The Bay of Plenty Times SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 1946 SHOWDOWN MUST COME

Tt was reported in the Bay of Plenty Times on Friday that the amount of the levies which the collecting bodies will have to impose to meet the hospital costs in Tauranga for the present financial year is £6OOO greater than was the case last year. As the chairman of the board staled, when the estimates came forward for approval, thiols indeed a bitter pill without any sugar coating, and it is not hard to imagine just 'how the payers of the levy will have received the news. It should be made plain that the Hospital Board is not responsible for this continued increase in the levy. It is elected to do a mighty important job and it does that job well, but at the. same time its position is a|i impossible one. On the one hand it is fared with the task-of protecting the interests of the ratepayers in every way it can, and on the other it has, placed in its hands, the responsibility of seeing that the sick are adequately provided for, a responsibility from which members cannot flinch in spite of the cvcr-<rrowing cost involved. As one member of the board pointed out, there must be efficiency in the hospital, and no matter how great Hie cost, their will be full agreement with this. To obtain the money with which t<"> ensure thai efficiency, the board has no alternative but to increase its levies, and unless some new system can be evolved for financiiirv the hospital service in the Dominion, it is quite obvious that as time goes on so the burden will become increasingly heavy. It is quite obvious too. that this state of affairs cannot, continue, and there must be a showdown soon. Conferences galore have been held throughout the Dominion to discuss this problem and many protests have been made, but they have got nowhere. Costs continue to rise and with each succeeding financial year the producer is asked to pay more.

On" of the eoiiionimns put forward, and one which has a verv strong baching, is that the present system of financing the hospitals of New Zealand should be abolished and that the cost of pvnvidiwotic s-'vvice should be met from the Social Security Fund. There is, as has been stated, a good measure of support for this nronosal :>nd at first si'dit it might appear to be the correct tiling to do. but, after all, would such a move result in any relief? Could the Social Securitv Fund stand this extra and prodigious burden? The answer to this is. no, without I'urtlrr increasing taxation, so that whatever happens the same people have to pay. The problem goes much deeper than that and it will take a great deal more courage than has been displayed so far to solve. The subject cannot be shelved any longer.