HOSPITAL REFORM

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LIII, Issue 13, 16 February 1932, Page 7

HOSPITAL REFORM

DR. CAMPBELL BEGG'S SCHEME

REDUCED EXPENDITURE

(By N.Z. Welfare League)

The heavy taxation and rates with which this country is burdened are so definitely crippling industry and retarding our recovery that any avenue for reducing uneconomic expenditure will be welcomed by the taxpayer and should be seriously examined by Parliament.

One of the most important proposals in this direction was outlined by Dr. Campbell Begg at the last meeting of the Wellington Hospital Board. The scheme he put forward would save a large sum annually to the general taxpayer indirectly and to the Ratepayer directly. It involves the abolition of 27 hospital boards and the concentration of work into eighteen districts.

His figures show that the saving would be very large—no less, in round figures, than about £500,000 per annum. Of this about half would j be a direct reduction of Government expenditure, and the other half would not need to be called for from the ratepayers. Comparing the 1914 expenditure with that of last year, allowing for the difference in the value of the £1 and the increase in population, the present expenditure on hospitals appears to be £650,000 too much. Thus it does not seem unreasonable to claim that £500,000 a year can be saved. The proposer of this reform states specifically that this saving would not decrease the efficiency of the service to the public, but would as a matter of fact increase it considerably.

In most cases of reform or economy local interests show resistance and the local M.P. has to temporise, very often, against his better judgment; thus the matter becomes political and the national welfare is often sacrificed to political expediency.

The Coalition Government was returned by the electors with a definite mandate to reduce unnecessary expenditure and balance our Budget. This hospital reform scheme, so we are assured by experts, will increase efficiency, and relieve the ratepayers directly of a quarter of a million and the taxpayers indirectly of a similar amount. Therefore it is to be hoped that "political expediency" will be ruled out. with a firm hand, and that members will not allow the national interests to be over-ruled by local demands based on parochial sentiment. The need for relief in taxation and from heavy rates i& so great owing to its effect on our industries, that it should be the first consideration—in other words, the interests of the electors who pay the rates should take precedence in this case to all other claims.