Hospital Fees

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30839, 26 August 1965, Page 12

Hospital Fees

Sir, —How many elderly people in Hospital Board institutions are aware that, apart from the greater portion of their social security being kept for payment, there is a daily charge gathering against them—more than they can ever afford to pay? For those who have nothing, the Hospital Board writes this debt off when they pass on: but for some who may, through personal sacrifice, have saved a small capital, the board

wants to grab the lot. In other words, they take it from those who have, to compensate for those who have not. It is no use quoting Government policy; it is solely the policy of the Hospital Board.—Yours, etc., RAZZLE DAZZLE. August 19, 1965. [ Mr J. G. Laurensen, secretary of the North Canterbury Hospital Board, said: “Patients admitted to the residential sides of old people's homes operated by hospital boards are not normally entitled to hospital benefits, and boards operating such institutions are required by law to recover as far as possible the cost of their maintenance up to a maximum figure of 17s 6d a day, which is fixed by the Minister of Health. When patients in this category enter an institution operated by the North Canterbury Hospital Board they are asked to complete an acknowledgement of this liability, but payment is sought only where the patient has private means or where ati estate exists following death. Any contribution from a social security benefit is accepted in part payment of this maintenance cost and the balance is a charge on the board’s funds derived from taxation ”]