HAWERA HOSPITAL BOARD

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 22 December 1913, Page 7

HAWERA HOSPITAL BOARD

SPECIAIi MEETING

: A special meeting of the Hawera Hospital Board was held this morning, MrR.H. Nolan in the chair. Dr. Val-, intine, Inspector-General, was also present. . CHILDREN'S WARD. The meeting went into committee to i consider again the tenders for the erec- j tion of the children's ward, and that of Mr J. W. Alderton, of Wanganui, at | £1537, with extras £21, was accepted. HOSPITAL EXPENDITURE. The Inspector-General, in > a few remarks'! to the' Board, referred especi- | ally to the high cost of running the ! hospital. From the annual; report of hospitals; a copy of which he had in his hand, he said it wouTH "be noticed that the comparisons would not "be in favor or the Hawera institution. He had, however;* that moniing conferred with the chairman and the house surgeon, and he had every hope that considerable improvement, In the economic* would be effected during the coming year. Dc Valintine went on to enumerate some of the items'which were heavier than in other hospitals, in the same class as HaI wera; and mentioned in particular provisions £31 per heaa\ as against £26, the average for the other hospitals: surgery and dispensary, £16 for Hawera, %s against the uve-age £11 4s. ! Tben, top, the lighting and fifing of the hospital were very heavy, totalling last year £462, which was practically double what it ought to be. •-.Mr GoocHand pointed out that of that amount £100 was spent in installation lof the electric light.

m The Inspector-General: Even then it is a large amount. The Chairman: There has been a gr e^\ going on in the hospital and I have always complained about it, 'nit although I knew if was going on J have never been able to put my angers on it.

Mr Goodland: It seems to me that supervision must have been needed ty ' The chairman has pointed this ■■;^ e l ' Inspector-General further said that he was glad to notice that pa-; tients fees were well maintained The Boards must look to these fees to reimburse their expenditure. The Chairman: We are not getting as much from the patients as we ought to.

The Inspector-General: No; you are not. He added that quite a number of ' people, went into the public hospitals who could quite afford to pay the ordinary fees, but who would not do so. He Had at ©he time circularised hospital boards with reference to adopting a universal fee, and assuming that the fee were .-£5-per week, he main-' tamed that there would be no hardship in that, because the Boards could go into the position of the patients, and if it >vere found they were in poor circumstances it could be reduced; but the patient who could , well afford" to pay the y full Fee should be -made to; do so. :: ■■. ;; •'." "'•'• •'' . .. :; •

The Chairman said he would not have an opportunity of again seeing the Inspector-General at the Board i meeting, as he was shortly leaving for England, land he would^like to take the opportunity of. assuring Dr Valintine that he had always done' his best in assisting him to keep the expenditure of the hospitals down. Tl^ere had been changes in the local statf, and next year when the Inspector-General visited Hawera Mr Nolan hoped that there would be a considerable improvement on the ieconomic side of the institution. ■