HOSPITAL BOARD'S DUTY

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 78, 29 September 1930, Page 8

HOSPITAL BOARD'S DUTY

Confidence in the Hospital Board's business capacity will not be strengthened by its methods of dealing with Mr. Campbell Begg's statement concerning hospital efficiency. At first there was a disposition to disregard the allegations of inefficiency, but when Mr. Begg supported his statement with statistical proof of the higer efficiency of other institutions the Board was compelled to take notice. It has, hoAvever, done nothing to forward an investigation.1 A medical committee, apart from the Board, has begun to look into the organisation, and the Medical Superintendent has presented a com Tj parison of New Zealand hospitals. But this does not carry the investigation far enough. When the subject was dismissed by the Board, though one or two members sought a complete inquiry, the general tone seemed more a desire to prove Mr. Begg wrong than to find ways of putting ithe Hospital right. One may ask, in such circumstances, what'is the Hospital Board for? Is it constituted simply to accept without question what is placed before it by its officers or has it a real management duty? If its functions are merely nominalf if it cannot guide and control management, then we might as well have no Board. If, on the other hand, it should be actively managing and is not, what is the reason? We suggest that one reason is that the Board is too cumbersome to be really efficient. Better results and real management would be assured with a smaller Board of business men chosen for their capacity, and their ability to exercise a real supervision over the Hospital's business affairs.