ACCOMMODATION IN HOSPITALS

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24869, 8 May 1946, Page 6

ACCOMMODATION IN HOSPITALS

“HIGHEST PROVISION IN WORLD ” (HA.) WELLINGTON, May 7. - On the basis of the recent census there were 10 beds available for each 1000 of population in New Zealand, representing, so far as was known, the highest provision in the world, said Dr. L. C. McNickle, Director of the Hospitsls Division of the Health Department, in evidence to-day before the Parliamentary Committee on Population

Dr. McNickle said this figure represented the average provision in New Zealand, but the distribution was uneven. In some districts the number of public hospital beds exceeded 12 per 1000, but other areas had only' 5 or six per 1000. In meny districts the problem was not the provision of further beds, but the staffing of the present accommodation, and the satisfactory use of beds by excluding patients who did not need hospital treatment. There was a shortage of nurses in many hospitals, but the staffing difficulty wes worse in Australia and England. A serious shortage of domestic servants existed. ♦

Dr. McNickle said the present hospital system, particularly when projected construction was completed, “should be able to cater for those members of a substantially larger population who really need hospital treatment.” He personally refused to believe that the health of New Zealand was deteriorating in any way. In reply to a question by the chairman (Mr J. Thorn), Dr. McNickle said he thought decentralisation of the population would in general be an advantage to health.