CHRISTCHURCH AS BASE HOSPITAL

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27098, 22 July 1953, Page 10

CHRISTCHURCH AS BASE HOSPITAL

Submissions By Mr J. L. Will CHARGE FOR SPECIAL SERVICES URGED The establishment of Christchurch as a base hospital, special medical arrangements for the Buller district, the inclusion of medical men on hospital boards, and the introduction of private beds at public hospitals were among the suggestions put forward by Mr J. Leslie Will, a Christchurch surgeon. Mr Will said his observations were based on an association of 34 years with the Christchurch Hospital as an orthopaedic surgeon, and 20 years conducting orthopaedic clinics on the West Coast. Base hospitals should be established in concentrated populations, rather than particular areas, Mr Will said. The Clarence and Waitaki rivers and the West Coast formed boundaries for sufficient population for a base hospital. “We are developing Cashmere, there is Burwood, and the centrepiece here in Christchurch, and a fourth hospital will come, probably in the north-west, but I look on the whole of this as a base hospital,” Mr Will said. “Special,ist services of the highest standard should be developed in the base hospitals. I would make Timaru and Ashburton subsidiary hospitals for this district, and develop Greymouth. I believe in decentralisation from the Health Department of the activities of i one group. If you establish a base hospital for this district, control should be with a body partly appointed, partly elected. Some concerted effort should be made at bulk buying for economy. Medical Representation “The purpose of a hospital board is to provide for the medical staff to look after the patients, who are their first consideration,” Mr Will said. “Medical men interested in hospital matters should have some say in their direct control. In the reconstructed board the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons and the British Medical Association should submit to the Minister at least two names on each of the regional boards set up. Medical representatives from ffie same sources should be on the hospital controlling committees or boards.” The West Coast was an isolated community, but travel between the centres there was quick and easy, Mr Will said. Greymouth could be established as a secondary base, with Umaru and Ashburton, but further development of the higher specialties in those regions should not be allowed. Buller presented a different picture. Travel was not easy. Because of its seclusion, and because it could be reached by air only at times, the Buller area could be developed as a special area and visiting consultants should be made available to it. “We want to keep the base hospitals as free as possible from unnecessary work, and that could be done with what I call a travelling consultant service,” Mr Will said. There were already some such services on the West Coast he said. Mr Win suggested the reconstructed board consist of five members elected by ballot as at present, five businessmen, selected on their ability to manage their own businesses, by the Government, and at least two medical men, who had been closely associated with hospital work. It should have the right to appoint its own chair-

To Mr Barrowclough, Mr Will said the mental institutions had been so solidly under the Mental Hospitals Department that they should be kept divorced from the others. In Christchurch there were the Nurse Maude establishment and the Rhodes Convalescent Home, and he believed that they should be brought together for the common good, said Mr Will. Some effort should be made to increase the services of those institutions because they helped to free hospital beds. There was a tendency for the good hospital outpatients’ staff in Christchurch to treat cases which could be referred back to local medical practitioners, said Mr Will. When it came down to cut fingers and sprained . ankles, such work should be decentralised. There was an incentive to keep patients there because young men training wanted to follow their cases through, but was that economic? A better balance should be struck. Mr Will said he did not see the need for the Christchurch Hospital to run a huge dispensary for free medicines when there were plenty of chemists in the town doing that. Private Beds In Hospitals “Why can’t we have private beds in public ‘hospitals?” said Mr Will. “There are plenty of patients who demand and need specialist services, and who are prepared to pay for first-class hotel accommodation. Is there any reason why we cannot develop the service they are willing to pay for? Why can’t high grade surgeons charge a fee to patients, provided the Health Department puts a limit on what they can charge?” With such a scheme, Mr Will said, a lot of the problems of the higher grade specialist would be solved. Dr. Wylie said that when the point had been raised elsewhere, there had been reference to class distinction. Mr Will said class distinction did not exist in sickness. If a person could afford a good standard of accommodation why should he not get it, when it helped relieve the burden of hospital expenses. “It was stated in Auckland that a hospital short of beds, nurses, and with a waiting list could not with justice bill patients when the whole needs of the hospital had not been met,” said Dr. Lynch. Mr Will: That is very sound. I was looking into the future. Mr will said there should be a continuity of policy in hospital boards, hospital, he said, had oeen post-dated 10 years because of in board policy, brought about tire board by popular