HOSPITAL BOARD

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 113, 14 May 1937, Page 10

HOSPITAL BOARD

MEMBER'S ACTION

STATEMENT TO PRESS

DISAPPROVAL VOICED

Disapprov-l of the action taken by Mr. A. XV ~ "skery, a member of the board, i:i . :ig to the Press over a matter raised by.him at the previous meeing of the board when there had been a ruling from the chair that the matter should first be considered by the house committee, was voiced by the chairman of the board (Mr. J. Glover) at last night's meeting of the Wellington Hospital Board. The matter referred to concerned the sending of an old age pensioner's body from the hospital to the Medical School at Dunedin for examination. Mr. Croskery sought information as to the authority in such cases and as to whether it was fair that the estate of the deceased person should be charged with incidental expenses, but he was stopped by the chairman from proceeding. Subsequently, Mr. Croskery gave details of the case, which he said he had been asked to inquire into. The board decided last night, on the motion of the chairman, to appoint a special sub-committee of inquiry into funerals of persons without relatives who die in the hospital. The chairman said that he had ruled at the last meeting that the matter raised by Mr. Croskery should go before the house committee. Mr. Croskery had defied the chair and had gone to the public Press. The Press had published the matter, and, in his opinion, Mr. Croskery's action should have their strong disapproval. The proper course to have taken, in his opinion, was, first, to consult the officers who might possibly have a reasonable explanation, and if then the matter was not explained satisfactorily, to bring the matter before the appropriate committee. Instead of doing that, Mr.. Croskery had gone to the Press and had apparently endeavoured to bring odium on the officers of the hospital. It looked like it, at any rate, ahd if odium was cast on the officers, it certainly brought odium on the board. STRONG DISAPPROVAL. "In open board," continued Mr. Glover, "I am going to voice my strong disapproval of the action of Mr. Croskery in taking the course he did. It was in my opinion not doing any good to himself or to those who were interested in the matter." Mr. Glover then moved the appointment of a special sub-committee to make an inquiry. . The reason he suggested a special sub-committee, he said, was that ordinarily the matter would have come before the house committee, but in view of Mr. Croskery's action he did not consider this committee should deal with the matter. He suggested as the personnel of the committee Mr. F. Castle, Mr. C. A. L. Treadwell, Dr. D. M. Wilson, Mr. A. H. Carman, Mrs. S. Snow, and himsel', the committee to report to a subsequent meeting ofi the board. "GOING TO SPEAK HIS MIND." Mr. Croskery contended that when a member of the board was asked a question by a citizen on any matter connected with the administration he was perfectly fight in bringing the matter beforeI'the board and asking for a reply. If the question was involved and the chairman could not give a reply at the time, then the chairman's proper duty in his opinion was to refer it to the appropriate committee and ask for a report to be brought down in order that the report could be read in open board and so that the Press and the general public should be aware of what was going on. He did not believe in any Star Chamber methods and as long as he was a member of the board he was going to speak his mind. If a citizen came to him with any matter, he was going to ask the question in open board and if the chairman of the board refused him the right he was going to take the only alternative left open and that was the public Press, and he was not ashamed of what the citizens would say about it. They did not want to hide, anything; there was nothing at all to hide, and if the chairman had taken the wise course of allowing him to proceed with the matter he had been asked by a citizen to bring before tho board and had said that it was an involved matter requiring a report from a committee, he would have done, in his opinion, the correct thing. THE PEOPLE'S SAFEGUARD. "I am not going to be a dumb dog on this board," continued Mr. Croskery. If citizens asked him to bring anything forward he was going to do so that it might see the light of day. He did not suggest for a minute that there was anything tremendously wrong going on, but he did say that some of the things that went on occasionally required publication in the public Press and. that was the only safeguard the citizens had. The Hospital Board surely was an institution that should not be ashamed of anything that went on in it. Mr. Glover, addressing Mr. Croskery, said he had asked him to bring the matter before the committee. Mr. Croskery: Yes, but you didn't allow me to state the case. That is the difference. Mr. R. Holland supported the views of the chairman. He said he thought that any matter that might throw the board into bad favour should first of all be brought before the committee. Sometimes officers of the board might not be able to produce evidence at a moment's notice to refute statements. It was only fair to the officers and the board that matters should be taken before the appropriate committee first to enable the officers to gather the evidence. He did not think the board should fail to reprimand any member who went to the Press and defied the chairman's ruling before the matter had been fully thrashed out. There was sometimes too much running to the Press. I He was glad to see Mr. Croskery standing up for the rights of individual members, said Mr. F. Castle, but there was a right way of doing things. There was an unwritten rule that when a member had something important to disclose or even an important question to ask he advised the chairman. At the same time he agreed that Mr. Croskery was right to raise, up to a certain point, anything he thought. fit, provided it was in order. In this instance he thought the chairman was correct in ruling that the matter should go to the committee. As it happened Mr. Croskery was chairman of the committee which could have handled the matter immediately. There were rights to which other members of the board also were entitled and he thought the action taken by the chairman had protected them. The motion was carried.