COOK HOSPITAL REQUIRES LESS MONEY FOR 1949-50 : ESTIMATED OUTLAY £161,113

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22931, 27 April 1949, Page 6

COOK HOSPITAL REQUIRES LESS MONEY FOR 1949-50 : ESTIMATED OUTLAY £161,113

Based on the expectation that the board must provide for a bed average of 216 in the main portion of the hospital, and for a total of 29 beds in its three maternity institutions, the Cook Hospital Board will face a total cash outlay of £161,113 for the financial year 1949-50. Of this sum, local bodies will contribute £30,104 by way of subsidies on maintenance and capital expenditure, and the balance will come from the Health Department.

The sum of £.161,113 estimated as required for the current year is lower by £21,626 than that on which last year’s operations of the hoard were based. At March 31 last the board had a cash balance of £BI7B in hand to he applied to this year’s programme or capital and maintenance works. Levies on Local Codies Rateable capital values upon which contributory local authorities’ subsidies will be based for the new financial year, together with the amounts of their respective levies, are:—

total capital valuation, were £9025 for the Gisborne Borough, £10.598 for the Cook County, £6574 for the Waikohu County, and £2671 for the Uawa County. Salaries Two-Thirds of Expenditure Salaries will consume more than twothirds of the total amount to be expended bv the board .the aggregate of all emoluments being estimated at £119.629, as against the actual disbursement of £111,625 for the 1948-49 financial year. Administration salaries and wages will require £6770. medical and nursing salaries £82,700, and other items including domestic and establishment wages, surgery and dispensary salaries, occupational therapy and outdoor relief wages will bring the total expenditure on wages and salaries within the hospital to £95.776. Maternity services provided at three annexes will taken £11,992 in wages, and an additional £llsO is provided for the staff at the Tolaga Bay hospital. Comparison With Past Years

The managing-secretary, Mr. C. A. Harries, submitted to today’s meeting of the board, at which the estimates were considered, illuminating tabulations of cash outlays and receipts in past financial years with which the current year's anticipated expenditure and receipts could be compared. One such tabulation showed that the maintenance expenditure on the Cook Hospital alone had risen from £58,995 in 1941-42 to £92.366 in 1945-46, and to £134,059 in 1948-49. Expenditure under the same heading for the 1949-50 financial year was £139,524, this outlay including provisions, domestic and establishment expenses, salaries and wages, and special department costs. Wages and salaries at the Cook Hospital in 1941-42 were £30,487, as against £54,421 in 1945-46, and £82,320 in 194849. The expenditure on maternity services was shown to have risen from £3422 in 1941-42 to £9BOI in 1948-49 in the case of the Cook Maternity Annex, from £361 in 1944-45 to £7781 in 1948-49 in the. case of the Lister Maternity Hospital, and from £915 in 1946-47 to £8276 in 1948-49 in the case of St. Helen’s Maternity Hospital. Prospective reductions were shown in the tabulation for all three maternity hospitals in the estimates for the new financial year.

The conduct of the Memorial Home cost the board £4944 in 1941-42', and £12,050 in 1948-49. The aggregate of all maintenance expenditure estimated for 1949-50 is £204,621, but against this has to be set £74,692 in patients’ fees recoverable from the Social Security Department. Maintenance subsidies from the Health Department and levies on local contributing bodies will yield £122,619, and the credit balance of £7310 from last financial year will add the final sum needed to balance the account. Capital Expenditure On the capital expenditure side, the board proposes to spend £52,741, but a substantial part of the work which will require this expenditure has been carried over from last year, with the corresponding credits, which amount to £18.561. New money required for capital purposes in the new financial year will be limited to £34,180. One contingency for which only partial provision has been made comprises fire emergency measures recommended by the Works Department. These are estimated to cost £7OOO, and against this sum the board has in hand £2OOO which it placed on last year’s estimates.

Increasing expenditure at the hospital and its attached institutions can only be adequately appreciated when the financial figures are considered in conjunction with the number of occupied beds and with the extent of the services rendered.

In the case of the Cook Hospital, the average of occupied beds in 1941-42 was 167.49. as against 210.96 in 1945-46, and 216.10 in 1948-49. The total number of patients treated in the hospital rose from 2796 to 3184 over the same period, and in the out-patients department the figure rose from 6297 in 194142 to 14,350 in 1948-49. In the Cook Maternity Home 170 patients were treated in 1941-42, and 450 in 1948-49, the average number of occupied beds increased from 5.75 to 13.13 over the same period.

Gisborne Borough C.V. .£4.376.101 Lew £10,159 Conk County £5,032,037 £10,48.3 Waikohu County .. £3,121,377 £6503 Uawa County £1.420,147 £2959 Totals £14,440,662 £30,104 Last year’s levies. based on a lower