Unpaid Hospital Maintenance Fees

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 180, 28 April 1931, Page 11

Unpaid Hospital Maintenance Fees

Sir, —I was glad yoli had assisted me to reach officialdom on this very pressing question, and thank you for eliciting further particulars from Mr. McCurdy, chairman of the hospital fees committee. A loss of £300,000 by Wellington Hospital in seven years I regarded as appal-, ling, but judge my 'surprise on being told bn such unimpeachable authority that the writings off for the.last six years only had reached .the more than formidable total of £542,818, or 50 i>er cent, more in six.years than the figure quoted by me in seven. ....

My sympathy and concern is for the dairymen and other primary producers, all of whom are struggling bravely to make ends meet, and now called upon and expected to make good even half such a huge sum. . Many seem to think that contributions to the Consolidated Fund, drawn upon by alpsorts.and conditions of people, fall like manna from heaven, but, “tell it not. in Gath,” the 55,000 dairymen, in receipt of only four or five pence a gallon for. their milk at present, have’to “ante up” their quota of land tax, as well, as import duties on articles consumed and used by their employees. Am I therefore far astray in stating that at least the “lion’s share” of all these unpaid accounts, falls upon the broad shoulders of the primary producer? Mr. McCurdy, in his interview with your representative, has mixed up hospitallevies with these bad debts, but as the above correspondence deals mainly with them, I leave him to state this quota of hospital taxation as between town and country 1 taxpayers at per head if he can tell me.

I have been a member of a hospital committee as well as jnost other local bodies in my district, and am not therefore the inexperienced person my pen-name implies, and have seen the form of agreement in use in some hospitals only, for signature by- patients, unable to pay maintenance fees on discharge from hospital. I hesitate to condemn it, and notwithstanding official opinions, as expressed by Mr. McCurdy, still maintains that the simple 1.0. U. is not only less costly, but far more effective when dealing with recalcitrant debtors, and should be in general use in every hospital when fees are not met on discharge, or. otherwise provided for.

Surely, Sir, the state of affairs now officially disclosed, cries aloud for some radical change of system, which will not, and cannot, affect anyone in actual need of help, and I still maintain that the stipendiary magistrate,'whose duty.it is to deal with Such public and private debts, is a more capable person to deal out evenhanded justice as between debtor and creditor than any chairman or official of the hospital board. It strikes me, Sir. with your permission. that this is a. fitting time, when elections are imminent, to offer a word of advice to ratepayers; instead of entrusting their suffrages to “mere man.” they should add an admixture of discreet women upon this-hospital board. The duties of members in charge of maternity homes, and matters in connection with fixing charitable aid to families, as more fitted for their consideration . than old bachelors, some of whom aspire to the position. I speak from experience, and would like to see men debarred from sit*, ting upon the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board, aifd feel assured that matters which have come under my _ knowledge would never be tolerated with women In sole control. —I am, etc.. RATEPAYER. April 20.