"REFINED CRUELTY."

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 44, 20 August 1908, Page 3

"REFINED CRUELTY."

HOSPITAL -CHARGES.

Mr. A. Saville writes stating that expatients of the Wellington HospitaJ, popr people unable to pay the fees, are harried by the trustees' debt-collecting agents. "If a poor wretch is unfortunate enough to bo cured/ asserts Mr. Saville, "he is pounced upon as a criminal by a dun and worried into another illness. Worry kills more people than doctors do. We spend thousands upon our 'distinguished visitors' and dun our sick poor. What hypocrisy !" The answer of the Hospital authorities is that no harrying is done. Any man who is looked up by an agent has only himself to blame, because no man is put upon the- debt-collector's list unless he has stated that he is able to pay. If he clearly mentions in the first instance that he is unable to contribute anything, he is not called upon for money. The trustees, however, have to keep a watchful eye on certain types of persons who are able to pay the charges, and try to evade their liability. There are individuals well able to get themselves attended by a medical man at their own homes, but by hook or by crook they manage to get into the Hospital for cheap treatment. They are mean enough to pose as moneyless folk, but when the trustees have knowledge- that a man of this character can well afford, to pay, they do not allow him to say "no" and shake off the debt by a shrug of the shoulders; he is kept steadily in view till the money is produced, '