Brake On Hospital Costs Advocated

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30288, 14 November 1963, Page 18

Brake On Hospital Costs Advocated

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, November 13. Hospital boards and their staffs would be very much more cost conscious if they had to show a profit at the end of each year, said Mr A. F. Wilton, president of the Hospital Officers’ Association and secretary of the Wellington Hospital Board, today. Hospital costs were no longer a charge on local rates, and because of that he did not think hospital board members were as economy-minded as they were under the old system.

In his presidential address to the general conference of the association, Mr Willton said that costs were regarded as a secondary consideration because they were spread over the whole country and did not affect the local rates. “A board member’s outlook now must be different from what it used to be, and that means a much greater responsibility on hospital administrative officers to endeavour to exercise the utmost economy consistent with an adequate standard of patient care,” he said. Particularly must they watch requests for equipment which was perhaps of somewhat speculative value. By that Mr Wilton said he did not mean that they should be hide-bound and conservative and unwilling to try anything new. In preparing the annual capital programme, Mr Wilton said, most boards probably had a fairly similar routine and heads of departments and of subsidiary institutions detailed their requirements. These could be classified as essentials, desirables, and luxuries. “The essentials go on to the programme, as many of the desirables as possible also, while the luxuries are unceremoniously scrubbed.” he

said. “That is as it should be but look back a few years. I am certain that in many cases what were laughed at then as luxuries are now highly desirable. Moreover, in another few years, some of them will be classed as essentials.’’ Mr Wilton said he supposed it was inevitable, that it was progress in line with the community’s general rising standard of living, but he wondered how long the country could afford it.