The Hospital Boards' Conference.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20427, 23 December 1931, Page 10

The Hospital Boards' Conference.

We print this morning a reply by \ Mr Campbell Begg, a Wellington sur- ! geori and a member of the Wellington Hospital Board, to arguments put forward in favour of holding next February the Conference of the Hospital Boards' Association postponed from last year. Mr Begg points out that the proposed Conference will cost between £6OO and £BOO and doubts whether the contribution made by it to a solution of the problems of unemployment relief and hospital administration will justify the expense. Prima facie, there is a good case-for a Conference in the fact that the Boards, according to an estimate published a few days ago, are likely to have a deficit of £IOO,OOO at the end of their financial year; but there is no such good reason for believing that the Conference will thrash out such broad issues.' Usually it confines itself to a discussion of some 50 or 60 remits sent in by the various Boards, and dealing mainly with the details of administration; and although no one will question the value of such discussions, the Conference will justify itself only if it is an economy conference from beginning to end. To begin with, there are far too many Boards, and the Conference will be most unlikely to advocate a reduction of the number. In the second place there will be two sets of problems before itone connected with the relief of unemployment and the other with the administration of hospitals, and the first of these is obviously not a problem for discussion by Hospital, Boards alone. While* the administration of unemployment relief should be overhauled, the problem must be tackled by a small body of experts and not by a conference of interested authorities. As far as the administration of hospitals is concerned, most Boards will claim that they have already made such heroic economies in salaries and running expenses that not much more can be saved; and although this must bo accepted with caution, national economy must come through a rationalisation of the hospital system of the Dominion and the closing down of unnecessary institutions. It is not to be expected that the February Conference will be a fruitful source of such schemes.