HOSPITAL TREATMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 99, 23 October 1936, Page 8

HOSPITAL TREATMENT

DUNEDIN PROPOSALS

PRIVATE ATTENDANCE

(By Telegraph.—Press Kssociairon.)

DUNEDIN, This Day.

? The outline of a scheme endorsed by the honorary medical staff for the building at an estimated cost ,'of £45,000 of a block of intermediate and paying wards to which all practitioners would have access to treat patients, with a scale of fees, was placed before the Otago Hospital Board last evening. ..'■■■■•■■■ : .-' The object was stated to be to obviate the following existing defects:—(l) Members of the public who prefer to pay for private medical attendance cannot' benefit from Hhe advantages afforded by the facilities and equipment provided by the hospital; (2) the present use of the hospital by patients financially able to pay for private medical attention. The scheme suggested was the erection of a block of wards providing 40 beds, the .capital to be raised by debenture issue; all practitioners to have access to treat patients; fees for medical attention to be a matter of direct contract between patients and doctors except for * intermediate wards, where the scale should be fixed; hospital fees to be £4s 4s for intermediates and for others on a sliding scale according to accommodation from four guineas to eight guineas. The board decided to hear a deputation from the staff to detail the full proposals. , ;, ■