HOSPITAL LOAN

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 64, 9 December 1936, Page 6

HOSPITAL LOAN

Heavy Burden of Costs

Comment on the proposed Wellington Hospital loan Of £600,000 was made by the secretary, Mr. C. Meachen, at a' meeting of the Hataitai Municipal Electors’ Association on Monday night. The cost of maintenance per occupied bed in the Wellington Hospital, said Mr. Meachen, was 10.46 per cent, greater than at Auckland and 11.2 per cent, more than at Christchurch; This disparity represented an additional burden of £7OOO to £7500 in the Wellington Hospital expenditure.

The percentage of out-patients’ fees recovered by the Wellington Hospital was 23.37 per cent, less than the average recovered in the four main centres. This represented an annual loss of approximately £5400. At Wellington only 20.86 per cent, of the fees chargeable to in-patients was recovered, this figure being 5.71 per'cent, below the average of the four centres and representing .an additional .loss of some £4700 per annum.

In commenting on the loan, Mr. Meachen stressed the fact that some £415.000 would be spent on increasing the accommodation in the hospital by only 220 beds. This represented an increase of from 2.96 to 4.32 beds per 1000 of population. Seven hundred beds would then be available, and he had heard 1 prominent medical men express the opinion that once a hospital had over 600 beds it tended to lose its efficiency. There were also the Hutt Valiev residents to be considered.