Health Has Become Big Business

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28481, 10 January 1958, Page 17

Health Has Become Big Business

TpVERYONE’S life is affected at “ some stage by the activities of the Department'of Health. From the cradle to the grave there is provision for caring for the health of New Zealand citizens and the cost of that provision Is borne, in whole or in part, by the people themselves.

During childhood there are dental treatments, medical examinations and inoculations against diphtheria or poliomyelitis. In later life may come hospital treatment, free medicine or the like Today the central health adminis, tration provides employment for more than 5000 workers in a wide variety of occupations.

Public contact is more often with the technical people—the doctors, dentists, nurses—but working alongside them are the

administrative staff, who look after the business side of this very big undertaking and provide the organisation and tools for the technical staff to do their jobs. Health is really big business today. Whereas in the 1930's the cost to the taxpayer, for health services was about one and a half million pounds, the sum now exceeds £4om.

The administrative tasks of such an organisation call for skilled executives in fields such' as finance, stores, staffing, institutional managements, health administration, and so on. The stores organisation, alone, for such as 800 dental clinic and the feeding and housing of 10,000 people in mental hospitals, overshadow those of many big retail or wholesale firms. Young men and' women who join the department as clerical cadets can aspire to senior poets such as district executive officers in local branches, secretaries at mental hospitals, or specialists in administrative fields at the central offices. Juniors, after joining the department, have their duties changed regularly every six to 12 months, thus providing them with wide variety in work and a good insight into all aspects of the department’s administration.

Health is a constantly developing field and new tasks He ahead. In Christchurch alone are a large district office, two mental hospitals, St Helens Hospital, a training school for dental nurses, and the Dominion X-ray and Radium Laboratory, all controlled by the Department of Health.