HOSPITAL BOARD TO SEEK LOANS

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31628, 14 March 1968, Page 1

HOSPITAL BOARD TO SEEK LOANS

The North Canterbury Hospital Board yesterday launched a campaign to raise loans to finance essential hospital building and improvement projects. About 70 department heads heard the chairman (Dr L. C. L. Averill) outline needs.

“We have come to a crisis in the development of hospitals in New Zealand, but we would not like to feel that 20 years of planning for the future is to be discarded,” Dr Averill said. The board wanted senior members of its staff to know precisely the position and what it was intended to tell the public in a series of illustrated talks and lectures by board members and senior officers. * "There is a great need to publicise what we need, particularly for loans, because if we cannot provide the loans we cannot provide the

facilities,” Dr Averill said. He planned to address several service clubs.

One in 11 persons in the ooard’s area was treated as a patient in one of its hospitals, Er Averill said. With the projected population increase, 180 more beds would be needed before 1976, and 213 before 1986, making 393 more beds in the next 20 years.

Dr Averill said he was pleased to see that the Prime Minister (Mr Holyoake) was encouragir J local bodies to proceed with building projects, but every effort would have to be made to publicise the board’s needs so that support would be gained for loans. He said the Canterbury Savings Bank was required to direct 80 per cent of its savings to Government loans, but 50 per cent would be a more equitable margin, making more loan money available for hospital projects.