HOSPITAL BOARD BUDGETS FOR £211,462 OUTLAY-£70,517 UP ON LAST YEAR

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22622, 27 April 1948, Page 6

HOSPITAL BOARD BUDGETS FOR £211,462 OUTLAY-£70,517 UP ON LAST YEAR

Expenditure faced by the Cook Hospital Board during the financial year 1948-49 will reach the unprecedented figure of £211,462, an increase of £70,517 upon last year's budget, accordingto estimates submitted to the board at a special meeting held yesterday,

Of that total, only £29,458 will be found by the contributing local bodies, under the amendment to the Hospitals Act effected last year which limits their liability for hospital rate to .5d per £1 of capital rateable value. The balance will be provided by the State, mainly through the operation of the Social Security Act. Liabilities of individual contributing bodies are;—Gisborne Borough Council (rateable capital value £4,620,083). £9025; Cook County (rateable capital value £5,087,157), £10.598;- Waikohu County (rateable capital value £3,155,592), £0574; Uavva County (rateable capital value £1,282,012), £2071; aggregate, £29,408. Had the local bodies been operating under the former system of finance, which required local bodies to find half the total cash requirements for the maintenance of hospitals, the aggregate levy on contributing bodies would have been just under £70,000.

Allowing for fees which the social security fund will pay to the board, and taking‘into account other factors in the finances of the board, the total cash requirements for the year will be £183,096. Of this sum, £139,478 will be required for maintenance and £43,020 for capital expenditure. The estimates are based on a bed average of 213 for the Cook Hospital. 13 for the Cook Maternity Annexe, nine for Lister Hospital, and nine foist. Helen's Home. In his annual report to the board, the chairman. Mr. J. B. Williams, pointed out that of the total estimated expenditure for the financial year of £211,402, wages and salaries would absorb £117,424. In 1944-45 wages and salaries took £03.231. in the following year, £75.073, in 1940-47 £81,320, and in 1947-48 £101.790. The new scale ot nurses* salaries will add over £IO,OOO to the board's annual outlay.