Frce Ambulance

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 67, 2 March 1935, Page 6

Frce Ambulance

(To the Editor.) Sir,—l have read with some interest Mr. Rainbow’s statements, supported by the council, m connection with the free ambulance and can only say that until it touches their own pockets it is impossible for them to see "by a free ambulance is needed. 1 am not in the association and do not know anybody connected with it, so 1 am giving you my views. In the first place there is no business or organisation commences in a big way to begin with, and if m a lew years it grows into a larger concern it is quite justified in its operations. If, as Air. Rainbow says, there is a Hat rate ot 10/-, there would not be so much ♦eed for a free ambulance for people who cannot afford 10/-. But my experience (and not hearsay) is quite different from -Mr. Rainbow’s intormant. I will give you two cases that happened in my own family, and 1 could also quote others. One was taken in from Hastings to Napier at night tune and was charged 3d/- and tho other was taken m from the Memorial Hospital last week in day time and charged 13/4. That would make the trip to Kerern about £‘s and ihe bill presented within 24 hours, notwithstanding the fact that they had been cross-questioned up and down ami all particulars secured when entering, and it was admitted that they were not able to pay. Alter all these inquiries, when people leave the hospital they are lulled again and again and it uot paid, then put m a debt collector's Hands to worry and annoy as a tonic to their speedy recovery. " Alter this, say that a tree ambulance is not needed. So there must have been a good cause lor a free ambulance. If a man buys a ear for his own pleasure and another has pleasure m supporting a free ambulance it is a matter oi no concern to tho Hastings Borough Council or anyone else, and it two vehicles are running for the same thing at dUlerent tunes, there is not all the extra expense, viz., £l2OO to £l5OO, that we are led to believe would occur. .My own opinion is that when the Hastings Borough and the County Councils open this six leet two-way bicycle track to Havelock with no track tor loot passengers, prams and school children, telegraph poles one side and a ditch on the other, one ambulance will be required to be stationed all the time between Mr. Logan’s boundary and Air. Rainbow’s, so the free ambulance will be needed. Aeroplanes will not get a hear, ing toi this work outside the Hastings borough, so if two accidents were to happen at the same time a good distance apart, I think tho tree ambulance is a right move to eventually nake the whole concern lice. —Yours, etc., AIRLOG. Hastings, March 1.

(Io the Editor.)

Sir,- I would like a little enlightenment on the tree ambulance. One ol the canvassers made the following .statements when (amassing: (1) That although they were not run by the St. John Ambulance, they arc working in eo-opeiatioii. *’„) I tint they had ttie same oppsotion in other towns, naming Wellington and Auckland, Well, lor the first statement. On asking an active member ol the Hastings St. John Ambulance Brigndv the correctness ot tlv> statciient, he said that then (St. John Ambulance Biatade) co-operation had not been asked tor to be either accepted or rejected. Statement No. 2. In W ellin.■ t mi L.iey iiave a definite organisation, Wellington Free Ambulance, at which St. John men. I believe, give their services occasionally voluntarily, but Auckland has a definite St. John Ambulance Association ambulance, which does the whole ot the work—only just recently, according to the “Auckland Star,’’ the Hamilton Hospital Board decided to hand over their ambulance

work to the St. John Ambulance Association of Auckland. Now, Sir, 1 consider that these statements ot canvassers need clarifying ioi the benefit ot the public. As icgards 100 many organisations, as staled by others, 1 somehow agree with them, so why do not these philanthropic tree ambulance people hand over to the St, John Ambulance, which is and has been formed tor some time, or to the Red Cross Society, which is also a very live body, and so avoid the addition of another social service to the list. I might state that 1 am neutral as regards the necessity ot a free ambulance, as that is for the public as a whole to decide.— Yours, etc., “ENLIGHTENMENT.” Hastings, Alarch 2.