HEALTH REPORT

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 62, 10 September 1924, Page 11

HEALTH REPORT

EFFECT OF ECONOMISING

DISTRICT TOO LARGE.

Regret is expressed in ths annual report of the Director-General of Public Health (Dr. T." H. A. Valintine) -that the past year was affected by the special demand for economy in public expenditure, and this necessitated a certain measure of departmental reorganisation. Among other measures taken with a view to bringing about the economy so urgently required- was tho decision to close the offices of the De-. partment at Whangarei, Napier, and Wanganui, the districts administered from those centres being placed respectively under the control of the ''Auckland and Wellington office. "It is obvious," says the report, "that the districts as now situated are too large to ensure efficient supervision, and it can only bo hoped that in more prosperous times it may be possible to again establish offices outside the four chief centres of our population. At that time, also, it may be possible to make departmental positions more attractive to the medical profession than is possible under the existing circumstances. In this connection it is to be regretted that so far the proposals of the; Department to the effect that the councils of the larger centres should appoint whole-time medical officers has not been favoured by the councils concerned, and though the Department must naturally conclude that the corporations:are satisfied with the present' arrangements, the fact remains that the sanitation and general health, work .of the larger towns could bo better supervised if the councils would but agree to the Department's proposal as to the appointment of wholetime medical officers. In the sanitary government of some of our larger cities there is certainly room for improvement. As far as the present health districts are concerned, the work of the Department has been to some extent decentralised, inasmuch as the medical officers of health ,have;been given more direct powers of supervision and control over departmental activities within their districts. . ' '

isow that the economic outlook is brighter and the personnel of the Department. has been, somewhat strengthened, we can look forward with a: certain degree of confidence to increased activity and better results in the , cause of preventive medicine in this Dominion. However, the evolution of a healthy race can only be achieved when each citizen of the State bears. his or her sha,ve of, the responsibility." ■i^S1o/ xpenditure of the Department in 1S 9 2£24 . .was ■■• £192,066, .as against ijdi6,tZc i. in the previous year. . ■ During the year plans were approved foe the erection,. addition, or alterations to hospital buildings-estimated to cost £373,769.

Amalgamation of hospital districts aro very difficult tasks to accomplish, says the report, and, attempts in the past have resulted in failure. Local sentiment runs highland the Department, is expected to provide tangible facts and figures to support its proposals for amalgamation— arguments of a general nature, such as those above, not being isufficient, however obvious, to bring about the desired result. Briefly it may be stated that this is the only serious drawback and handicap to a hospital system which has been- the subject of favourable comment the world over, and has been, or is being adopted in other parts of. the Empire. ,