HOSPITAL SYSTEMS

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 296, 13 September 1927, Page 10

HOSPITAL SYSTEMS

“UNITED STATES LEADS THE WORLD” MERITS OF CENTRALISATION Dominion Special Service. Auckland, September 12. The wonderful .efficiency and high standard of administration maintained in 'the public hospitals throughout the United States greatly impressed Mr. Murdoch Eraser, chairman of the New Plymouth Hospital Board and a member of the Dominion Board of Health, who returned from a four months’ visit to the United States and Canada by the Niagara to-day. Mr. Fraser was given every assistance by American authorities and was enabled to inspect no fewer than 65 institutions between Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon. “I consider the United States leads the world in hospital administration,” stated Mr. Frtmer. . "The public are very generous, and their .institutions are very wealthy. • I also found that the authorities are ever ready io. learn. Whenever I met them I could get no information from them until I told them about our own hospitals and the way they are ran.” As the result of bin visit. Mr. Fraser is more than ever convinced that the weakness in the hospital system of this country is that there are too manyhospitals. As -an 'instance he stated that there was an institution at New Plymouth and within a radius of 40 miles there were other institutions at Stratford and at Hatfera'. In the United States a policy of centralisation had been adopted, and this might well be followed in the'Dominion. Centralisation led to greater- co-ordination, less expenditure, and greater efficiency..