£5000 MEDICAL BILL

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29189, 27 April 1960, Page 21

£5000 MEDICAL BILL

Hospital Board Intends To Write Off Account (New Zealand Press Association) NEW PLYMOUTH, April 26. The Health Department is to be advised that the Taranaki Hospital Board intends to write off an account of nearly £5OOO for the treatment of children from the Cook Islands at the New Plymouth Hospital. If the department directs otherwise, it will be asked from where and how the money is to be collected The Taranaki Hospital Board decided this today during discussion on the account, which the chairman (Mr P. E. Stainton) said had been going “round and round like a shuttlecock.”

It would be “pretty tough” if the Crippled Children Society had to find the money, said Mr E. H. White. "They won’t,” said Mr Stainton. The board had agreed to give the crippled children treatment at the department’s request.

Members expressed concern that the trouble met in settling the account might affect trea‘ lent of future cases from the isles. Two of the children were still in the hospital, said Mr Stainton. They had had up to 12 or 14 operations. The secretary (Mr A. J. Gunn) said that some months ago the department had said the amount should be recovered. The board then decided to advise the department that it would write off the account unless other instructions were received.