Hospital to restrict free accommodation

Press, 16 August 1984, Page 9

Hospital to restrict free accommodation

Stricter controls may be enforced to restrict the number of parents getting free accommodation at Christchurch Hospital to stay with their sick children.

A meeting of the Canterbury Hospital Board’s finance committee yesterday approved a recommendation to charge parents and relatives who wished to stay at the hospital a fee of $6 a night.

The only exceptions to the rule would be those asked to remain at the hospital for therapeutic reasons, and they would have to have the written approval of a doctor before they could stay free of charge.

All parents and relatives would be charged for meals they received at the casual

rate of $4 a day.

The chief executive officer, Mr Ron Parker, said yesterday that the policy of charging the accommodation fee to people not connected with the patients’ treatment programme had been in force for some time.

However, the rule had been “pretty flexible” for parents of sick children in the pediatric wards. “We have been very generous up until now,” he said.

Most relatives of patients had stayed in the hostel, but the situation was different for parents who stayed in the hospital itself. The move. towards stricter controls on accommodation has come as a part of the board’s efforts to

compensate for its $551,000 drop in Government funding this financial year, said Mr Parker.

The recommendation, which came from the budgeting and staffing committee, would go before the board next week.

Another proposal from that committee was accepted in principle at yesterday’s meeting. Day patients at Princess Margaret Hospital could now find themselves paying for their lunches—another costcutting move. It has been estimated that $5OOO could be saved through this move. However, board staff will check with other main hospital boards to see what their policy is before the proposal is accepted.