Steep Rise In Hospital Costs

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30428, 30 April 1964, Page 11

Steep Rise In Hospital Costs

The maintenance cost of the major general hospitals, and many other institutions, of the North Canterbury Hospital Board, rose considerably last year, according to the annual report of the board’s treasurer (Mr J. J. Morgan).

The maintenance .cost an occupied bed a week at the Christchurch Hospital was £5l 18s Bd—an increase of £3 2s 5d on 1962-63 and of £8 18s 4d on 1961-62. The corresponding figure for- the Princess Margaret Hospital was £49 16s 2d, with increases of £5 4s 6d on the year and £7 17s over two years. Burwood costs rose to £33 15s lOd, with rises of £3 7s 9d (one year) and £6 Os 2d (two years). The maintenance cost of the Essex (maternity) hospital in 1963-64 was well over double the 1961-62 cost, In 1961-62 the cost per occupied bed per week was £2B Is; in 1-962-63 it was £44 Ils 2d; in 1963-64 it rose to £59 Ils Id.

The English national average for hospital bed costs in 1962-63, says Mr Morgan, was £3l 10s 2d an occupied bed a week.

. The highest cost an occupied bed -a week in any of the board’s institutions in

1963-64 was at the Chatham Islands hospital (£294 17s sd). Next followed Cheviot (£lO2. 15s 4d), Akaroa (£9l 7s lid), Lyttelton (£76 8s 7d), and then Essex. At the other end of the scale was the Teresa Green Home (£8 19s Id).