HOSPITAL BOARDS/AND FRIENDLY SOCIETIES.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 895, 15 August 1910, Page 9

HOSPITAL BOARDS/AND FRIENDLY SOCIETIES.

Sir,—During last session of Parliament an Act was passed entitled The Hospitals and Charitable. Institutions Act, which, if carried out by every other hospital board as it has been done by the Auckland Hospital Board, will increase the hosm'tal and charitable aid ratethroughout tho Dominion, for the exclusive benefit of friendly"societies. .1 wrote the Hospital Board protesting against their action, and the chairman moved "that tho letter he taken as read. They did not wish to have tho following facts connected with certain clauses ot the Bill published, and as The Dominion is published in the-city where, laws are made, perhaps the lawmakers may acknowledge they havo - made a big mistake, and repeal the objectionable clause in tho. Bill. I may mention here that the agreement between the Auckland Hospital Board and the friendly societies is that the board shall charge adult members'of friendly societies half tho ordinary fees'—2s. Gel. per (lay, instead ot 55., and children of members, Is. 3d. per day. Tho reason the board gave for their acceptance of this offer, was that they would have no troublo in collecting tees, as" the societies guaranteed tho payment according to the above scale, and it was stated that the hoard only collected Hid. per day nor patient. Two members of tie board acknowledged that one society—tho Kechabites-had never paid more- than half fees in the oast. I havo been studying Hansard, and will now let the ratopayers of the Dominion know a ..little more about the. above Bill than they knew before. . ' Clause 71 of the Bill as passed by the Committee of .the/ House on Novombor 16 (vide Hansard), reads:—"(l) When a hospital and charitable aid board: may lawfully grant any kind of relief to any person, it shall be lawful for that board to contract for the -granting of such relief to that .person by any other hospital or charitable aid board ,or by any separate institution," etc.; • This-clause will commend itself _to every man and woman in tho Dominion. All the clauses up to 120 were passed by • the committee that afternoon, and from the various ameiidme.its that were moved, and the divisions that were taken on some' of' the clauses, it was evident memuors woro taking a good deal of interest in tho passage of the Bill.. . On November 18, 7.40 p.m., tho Bill was again considered' by the House in Committee, when a few new clauses were 'added, presumably elaborating-what-had already been fairly well- done. the clauses I wish to refer to particularly aro 71a and 71b. 71a reads:—"Section 71 horeof shall extend and apply to contracts entered into betwecu a hospital and charitable aid board and the Government, in ■ respect of relief granted to any person recuive.il into any Govev.inie.it Sanitarium,,. on the'recommendation of the medical, superintendent of any; hospital under the contral of the board." - >

Although tho abovo clause - wis not in tho draft Bill, as published, yet no one can take any exception to it. But it seems a mystery how 71b and its subclauses wero passed '. by tho Committee without a single amendment, or tho slightest discussion., i ~: ,i,-ii i;"71b. (1.) Any hospital.and charitable aid.board may from, time to. time enter into an agreement with, any registered friendly society or registered branch., ofa friendly society, that the' society or' branch, will pay.to. tho board a fixed an-,' riual or other periodical payment in satisfaction of all claims in- respect of . the maintenance in any hospital belonging to tho board of members of the society or branch who, during the period in respect of which tho payment is mado, aro the inmates of the hospital. (2.) Any such agreement may extend to-the mainten-' anoo of the husbands, wives,'and children of tho members of the society or branch in the same manner' us to the members themselves, and may - extend either to all the members of-the society or branch, or only to specific classes of members. (3.) Any such agreement may either bo for a-fixed period not exceeding five years, or bo made determinable at the will of either party." Sub-clauses (4) and (5) show how the money is to be rccov-, ered in the event of default. "(C.) In this Section tho term 'children' means ohildren under 1G years of age." Tho ratepayers of New Zealand have built our hospitals.. and these hospitals arc open, or supposed to be open, to nil who cannot afford to pay three guineas per week at a private hospital, but who can, or might, pay cost price of maintenance at the public hospital. Many who are sent to the hospital are homeless and destitute, and the board'must mako provision for them. in their sickness, and Clause 71 empowers the board to pay for their maintenance at Kotorua or' elsewhore.'But men representing 5(1,918 mem-_ bers of friendly societies . evidently brought pressure/to bear on those in authority, and Clause 71b . was evidently smuggled into tho Bill, which provided exceptional treatment for those members, and permitted hospital boards to enter into agreements with 'societies by which the ordinary fees due for hospital treatment could be compounded. And to make it still better for the 50,918 friendly society members, their 1 -wives, and families this may be for'/n fixed period not exceeding fivo years. This, too; 'at tho expensd of every householder, for although sonicdistricts and boroughs: which are rated .ordinarily, on Iho unimproved value, yet the hospital and, charitable aid rate is levied on the capital value, throughout the Dominion, '.thus .no property escapes this tax.

How men with-any feelings of selfrespect. comlili propose that they should only pay the .hospital board half the actual cost for the maintenance of their members in'the local hospital, knowing as they must that half the balance must be mado up by the ratepayers in the hospital district, and the remainder from the Consolidated Fund, is more than I understand. Yet-when you look at.it calmly you must see how extremely modest they were, in their demands. The' Act gives'the hospital'board full power to make any arrangement they like, and as the majority of the members of the board are, or have bsen, friendly society members, they might have agreed to the daily payment being U.,' instead of 2s. Gd., for adults, hence tlie necessity for its repeal. The Act is undoubtedly the newest.form of class legislation, giving "preferencu to unionists" even in our hospitals.—l am, etc., S. COCHRANE MACKY. Devonport, August 6, 1910 .