King Country Chronicle Saturday, July 5th, 1913 THE HOSPITAL QUESTION.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 582, 5 July 1913, Page 4

King Country Chronicle Saturday, July sth, 1913 THE HOSPITAL QUESTION.

Evidence is frequently forthcoming of the disadvantages under which Te Kuiti labours in respect to medical facilities, and the attitude of the Hobpital Board in relation to the district does little to inspire confidence that sympathetic consideration will be extended to the locality in future. In respect to the Pio Pio application for assistance in establishing a medical practitioner there was as much difficulty in obtaining the co-operation of the board as if that august body was conferring a mark of particular favour on the district, instead of merely exercising its legitimate functions by endeavouring to provide for requirements of the district in respect to hospital matters. While realising that the utmost consideration and attention should be exended to the fine hospital which has been established at Hamilton, and that the institution should be maintained at the highest pitch of efficiency, the backblock resident is equally conscious of the fact that the Hamilton hospital is not the first and last thing in respect to hospital facilities, which the Waikato Hospital district requires. The board is certainly to be complimented upon the manner in which the Hamilton Hospital affairs have been administered and it is to be hoped the same progressive policy in respect thereto will be continued. It is a matter for regret however that an equally broad-minded and sympathetic attitude has not been adopted concerning matters in the outlying districts, the residents of which have little or no opportunity of utilising the hospital. It is high time the members of the board came to a realiastion of the fact that the efficient administration of the central institution at Hamilton is not sufficient justification for the board's existence. With such :i vast area of country within the boundaries of the hospital district, including alike town centres and old-settled farming dia tricts, together with a larger percentage of backblock country, there is ample scope for the exercise of a broad and sympathetic consideration of matters pertaining to the different localities. Moreover, when it is ?hown that the interests of any outlying district are not identical with the central institution, it iB the obvious duty of the board to make every effort to meet the requirements of the district affected. It is no part of the public policy that one district should be sacrificed in the interests of another, and it is also certain the board has no desire that any such sacrifice Bhould be rendered. It is a general tendency, however, to awaken slowly to the fact that the expansion of settlement and the inrush of population to new districts enlarges the responsibilities, and makes increasing demands upon the consideration of the various public bodies administering the affairs of those districts. The financial aspect of the case is of course important, and no doubt the board's action? are controlled to a great extent by the exigencies of finance. The obvious remedy to each a position is to increase the revenue

by any means which lies in the power of the board. The requirement* of the district in reapect to hospital facilitiej are increasing to an extent and in a manner which the members of the board are either unwilling or unable to realise, and the sooner a broader conception of the board's responsibilities is arrived at the better will be the feeling throughout the district concerning the board's activities.