RATHBONE HOSPITAL

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVIII, Issue 202, 9 August 1928, Page 6

RATHBONE HOSPITAL

SCALE OF MATERNITY FEES. GRADUATED BASIS PROPOSED. In accordance with notice given, Sister F. K. Anderson moved the following motion at the monthly meeting of the Waipawa Hospital Hoard, held in Waipukurau yesterday: “That the scale of fees at the Rathbone Maternity Hospital be revised, and a sliding scale instituted, so that those who can pay shall pay at least actual cost, and the poorer classes shall only pay according to their means.” Some discussion ensued as to whether the debate should proceed in committee, in the course of which Mr. F. J. Witherow expressed the view that the matter was of such public interest that full publicity should bb given to the Board’s deliberations. The chairman (Mr. W. H. Rathbone) said that in his opinion it would be advisable to consider the matter in committee, and on the motion of Mr. Percy Hunter, seconded by Mr. L. M. Monckton, it was resolved that the Board go into committee. The latter expressed the opinion that to follow the committee course of procedure would permit of greater freedom in debate.

The motion was seconded by Mr. F. J. Witherow, pro forma, and-on a vote being taken was defeated on the voices.

Members had expressed sympathy with Sister Anderson’s proposal, but were of the opinion that it would be inadvisable, for many reasons, to have more than one scale of charges, and pointed out that people who could not afford the full fees would receive every consideration from the Board bv wav of reductions, and also that patients not able to afford a private practitioner, could, upon the recommendation of the Matron, obtain the services of the Board's Superintendent.

As to the statement that had appeared in the press that the Home was “run at a dead loss,’’ the returns from the Year Book showed that the fees received for last year were over 90 per cent., and that the institution was the nearest to being self-supporting of its kind in the Dominion.