SUGGESTION TO HOSPITAL BOARD

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 27, 1 February 1924, Page 7

SUGGESTION TO HOSPITAL BOARD

QUESTION OP UNFAIR TREATMENT, i.

One of the requests made to the Wellington Hospital Board yesterday afternoon by the deputation from the Hut*.! Valley was that, in: the event of a cot- I tage hospital being eTected, provision should be made for private rooms, for which an extra charge should be made. In introducing the subject, Mr. W. T. Strand, Mayor ,of Lower Hutt, said that the request he was about to make was one that might be questioned somewhat by the board. He understood that the Health Department was making a move towards Having maternity homes registered. At the present time they were not required to be registered, and he for one thought that they should be. In addition to that, he thought that anyone who had made any observations during the last few years ~mnst have been struck by the number of private hospitals t and nursing, homes that were being built and occupied. They thoughf that in a place like the Hutt Valley, rooms should be built that could be used as private rooms by people able and willing to pay for them, the Tooms. to be under the direct-control of the board. He considered the time had arrived when private accommodation for persons requiring it should be made at public institutions. Tile need for it was shown by the fact that private hospitals were used to- such a large extent. Personally, he thought that the control of the private accommodation should be in the hands of the medical superintendent, whoever he might be, from time to time. Support to the views expressed by Mr. Strand waa given by other members of the deputation. The Rev. H. Van Staveren, a member of the board, expressed the opinion that the deputation would do well to drop the idea of private rooms. They should make no distinction whatever between the patients thtfEHhey dealt with. Mr. C. M. Luke also opposed the idea of private rooms. The suggestion was not new. They had had private rooms nt the Wellington Hospital 30 years ago, and had had complaints, rightly or wrongly, of unlair treatment. '