State Aid For Private Hospitals

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29989, 26 November 1962, Page 12

State Aid For Private Hospitals

The Government’s decision to increase social security payments to private hospitals should directly benefit the taxpayer, and should help to maintain a high standard of health services. Private hospitals provide about a seventh of New Zealand's available hospital beds. Any reduction in their numbers would increase the burdens of publicly-controlled institutions and swell yet further the costs of social security. The Government hopes to encourage more patients to seek admission to private hospitals, and thus to relieve the present pressure on the public hospitals. Nine years ago the Governmentappointed Consultative Committee on Hospital Reform recommended higher

social security payments to the private hospitals. Eco-

nomic and other circumstances have forced the closing of many such establishments. For instance, whereas in 1946 85 per cent, of maternity beds in Auckland were in private hospitals, the present percentage is 25. It has been estimated that the cost of maintaining a public hospital bed in New Zealand is between £4 and £6 a day, while in private hospitals the gross charge for accommodation averages about £3 10s a day. If the Government had not approved its new scale of social security payments, the Dominion would undoubtedly have lost some of the 2300 beds provided by about 145 surviving private hospitals; and everyone, from the ordinary taxpayer to the medical specialist, would have had real cause for regret.