HOSPITAL CONFERENCE

Inangahua Times, 22 December 1931, Page 2

HOSPITAL CONFERENCE

SHOULD BE CANCELLED STATES DR BEGQ. (Per United Press Assn.) WELLINGTON, East Night. Replying to arguments in favour of a conference Of Hospital Boards next February, wVch were advanced last ■week by Mr J. Wallace, President of Hospital Boards’ Association, Dr Campbell Begg, Member of WeP'ngton Hospital Board, reiterated that tbe er-pcndlture of £6OO to £BOO on a conference was not warranted. Dr Begg questioned the contribution which the proposed conference could make to the problems of unemployu ent and distress relief. He said various Hospital Boards were permitted to send Of voting delegates, while others, without voting power, could attend. At the conference in Palmerston North in 1929, there were 67 Board members, 30 Board Secretaries, eight medical superintendents and five oncers of the Department of Health. Apart from the Minister of Health, the total attendance was 101 and all expenses were paid by the Hospital Boards or from Government funds. Local expenses were presumably mot | to some extent by the Hospital Board* 1 Association, which, during the last financial year, secured for its activities £824 from the Board funds and £IOO as Government grant, j “The Conference lasted throe day* and all hotel and travelling expenses for delegates were met from public funds,’’ said Dr Begg. “The Conference proposed for Timaru next year will be similar in composition, although possibly there will be fewer delegates. Tbe cost chn hardly be held less than £BOO or £700.” ■ Dr Begg added, that secretaries and I superintendents would probably confer on routine hospital matters, while Board delegates Would have SO or 88 remits to consider, many of which would he of' a minor nature. “It is doubtful If any complete National and constructive propositions will bo submitted and it is certain that, if these involve dissolution of some 25 Boards, they will not ho passed,” said Dr Begg. “Yet all authorities, including officers of the Health Department, realise that this step is one of the first essentials in reform of the Hospital system. Some of the remits would involve expenditure of more money if carried. “The standing executive of the Hospital Boards’ Association included representatives of - the main Hospitals,” Dr Begg said. "This body was sufficiently representative and should be more effective as an advisory body than any conference, if its members were prepared to take the onus of their decisions. If the Executive had failed to bring forward practical schemes for reduc-

tion in expenditure, no conference would be likely to do better. • ’

Dr Begg added: “I hope that Mr Wallace will endeavour to get thia conference cancelled and will use the ordinary mechanism of the Association to bring forward proposals on vital questions. The time for conferences and commissions is passed and if those who have the responsibility will not take drastic action on the information available without regard for political consequences, the Dominion has little chance of being saved from financial disaster, the threat of which becomes more ominous month by month.**