The Dominion THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1941. THE RUSH TO THE HOSPITALS

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 113, 6 February 1941, Page 6

The Dominion THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1941. THE RUSH TO THE HOSPITALS

Figures published yesterday revealing die regarding- the ? problem of accommodation at the Wellington Hospital X cause for serious concern. Mr. Castle, chairman of the hospital board states that certain measures for relieving the position are under consideration, but it would appear that considerable time must elapse beforethese schemes material. That the problem is acute . qu e evident and a reference to the latest report of the Health Depart went will show that it is not confined to the Wellingtont hospitai - trict Other boards throughout the Dominion are faced with an extra ordinaryincrease in the number of people requiring treatmen a d the corresponding difficulty of providing accommodation for them. Mounting P expenditures in hospital budgets, involving annual incre^ e calls on the taxpayers, have borne testimony to the embarrassments of the boards in meeting the increasing difficulties o the position Taking the case of the Wellington hospital the total < of patients treated in all the board s institutions m 1931-32, says - - Castle was 7887. For 1940-41 the corresponding figure was 14,594. This tremendous jump is not the result of a proportionate increase in the population, and it would be really alarming if the figures pointed to a P serious deterioration in the general health of the community. J - Castle advances the following reason: The increase has been greatest (he says) within the past two years following the introduction of the hospital and laat^ni^ il f e “ r 'y fits under the Social Security scheme and because of patients, though the figures did not include soldier patents treated at Trentham racecourse. The accession of military patients, of course, is an unlooked-for complication of the board’s problem, but the general trend is quite clear apart from this, and would have demanded serious attention even had there been no war. „ , . . . . The fact is that the public is now confronted with one of the many effects of the present Government’s lack of foresight, and failuie to visualize the consequences of its Socialistic policy and measuies. In the case of the hospitals there has been an abnormal rush 0 patients encouraged by the Social Security Act to take the fullest advantage of provisions which more intelligent foresight would have better safeguarded. These provisions, it is now being borne m upon the public, were generous beyond the resources of the community to carrv. In one department after another of our national life the pub i in all classes is feeling the impact of complications and difficulties arising from ill-considered measures on the part of a Government inexperienced in practical affairs. The country has. now entered upon a stage in which patching and tinkering to keep things moving appeals to be the order of the day.