Loan money urged for hospitals

Press, 13 August 1976, Page 4

Loan money urged for hospitals

Loan money should be more readily available for private hospital expansion, the New Zealand Private Hospitals Association conference in Christchurch recommended yesterday. 1 : i 1 1 t 1 1 c i i J < I < I I I 1 « i I J r I J

| The association will in'struct its executive to pre--1 pare, an assessment paper fot geriatric patients in private hospitals, if the Department of Health agrees. The paper, which carries a series of questions, will assess the nursing care for geriatric patients in private hospitals. lite conference recommended assessments by an approved medical practitioner, approved social

worker and a registered nurse representing the private hospital concerned and that the assessment forms be used. It also recommended that a nursing reassessment form be completed by the principal nurse monthly or when necessary for all hospital patients. This would be available at the discretion of the principal nurse.

The conference also recommended that a patient needing nursing care of four hours or less be granted a greater geriatric benefit than at present. Standard nursing

and social assessment forms should be completed by a registered nurse and social worker before the medical assessment. The association recommended that its executives support the New Zealand Medical Association’s- moves to introduce a nenatal benefit to private maternity hospitals. The conference also urged that, private medical hospitals be allowed to employ registered psychiatric and registered psychopaedic nurses as registered nurses. These nurses would be counted in the annual figures of registered staff submitted to the Health Department. The association supported the principle that principal nurses holding a practising licence be encouraged financially by the Government in the purchase or lease of private hospitals in the same i way farm ownership by young farmers was fostered. , The conference agreed to , reaffirm its policy on abor- , tion. This says 38 private hospitals in New Zealand are licensed to perform surgical operations.

These hospitals were autonomous as to the policy they adopted towards admitting patients who might require 1 surgery. j Most surgical private hos- * pitals did not permit or discourage the admission of 1 patients for abortion in early ; pregnancy. Of the minority ' who did, most insisted on stringent criteria by the , patient’s medical advisers be- . fore admission. All patients were referred i and treated by a registered j medical practitioner who alone assumed full clinical responsibility for the patient’s management, the policy stated. Decisions concerning treatment were made by the patient’s doctor and not by hospital administration. Counselling services were

i not often available in private : hospitals. These were 1 traditionally provided by I tv/o medical practitioners before a patient’s admission ' was arranged. ’ A clear legal interpreta--1 tion of the Crimes Act rei lating to abortion had not ’ been tested and defined by a ' court of law in New Zealand. ( Until then the legality of the ‘ procedure was arguable in ' many cases the policy said. j The conference also re- ' affirmed the. executive reso- ’ lution that pending a ' Supreme Court hearing and the report of the Royal Commission on contraception, sterilisation and abortion, the Auckland Medical Aid Trust which runs the Aotea Private Hospital and any other hospital mainly concerned with abortions not be accepted for association membership. Mr Whittleston was reelected as the national president of the association. The conference ended yesterday.