HOSPITAL FINANCE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20825, 2 July 1942, Page 2

HOSPITAL FINANCE

“A CASE FOR REFORM” MINISTER’S COMMENT COST OF SOCIAL SECURITY (P.R.) WELLINGTON, this day. As far as the general principle of hospital finance was concerned, said the Minister of Health, the Hon. A. H. Nordmeyer, in the House of Representatives yesterday, it was admitted that if any drastic change were to take place it would probably be one of the most controversial issues in the history of New Zealand and he did not think such a controversial issue should be introduced r:ow. The Minister was replying to Opposition suggestions that the. upkeep of hospitals should be a national obligation. He said that ho good purpose would be served by exaggerating the amount of the increase of hospital taxation on local bodies. In the year before social security came into operation the amount that had to be found by local bodies for hospital purposes was £1,093,000. In the two subsequent years that amount was not exceeded. This was the first year since social security came into operation that there had been an over-all increase in the amounts required from local bodies compared with 1939-40, though lie admitted that in some districts the hospital rate had increased more rapidly than in others. This year the local bodies were required to provide £1,258,000, an increase of £165,000 on the figure for the year before social security, the increase being approximately 15 per cent. Emphasising the fact that the money for hospitals had .to be found somewhere, the Minister said that many people who were now agitating for a reform in .the method of hospital finance might find that an alteration of taxation would mean to them, not'less, but ; more than the present cost. “The Government,” added the Minister, “undertakes to stand by the general principle that the cost of paying for soldier patients should be a national rather than a local responsibility.” Determination of the precise amount involved was a matter for the War Administration.