URGENT REFORM

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 67, 18 February 1932, Page 2

URGENT REFORM

hospital problem. HEALTH ANDW|LFAI» OF Dr. Campb.il remarks made at tn . Ilia kes North Hospital Board meeting, the following .statement :-- a . rman flf 'llie complaint of the 9 , f3 oal <l the Palmerston North Ho»P»ta, appears to lie in the claim ™ at m * de proposed changes should n f or until there lias been ample deliberation and diseussipn. . _ same time lie admits that th P ciples involved are very ? d r X n f o r been the subject of consideration tor many years. + n be The two statements appear to contraditory. With the latter.l heart ily concur. No claim for °nginahty lias ever been made. From th when Dr. McGregor made his| P™ posals in regard to the. consolidation of hospital districts in the y 188 G, and even earlier, from The period when Dr. Valintine made his,bid tor twenty hospital districts, from time when Dr. Malcolm MacEuchern addressed the Hospital Boards G ference and'lodged his office of the association in lw*. effective criticism has been made against the suggestions of these experts, but nothing has been done to give effect to them. All alike during this haltcentury have had the morification of seeing- vital matters atreeting the health and welfare of the people converted into pawns on the chessboard of political and parochial expediency. “Dr. Begg,” says Mr Hornblow, “is only reiterating things which we have been unable to introduce into this country. He has not told us something which we did not know previously as administrators or hospital affairs.” Surely if these tilings are desirable, and the speaker s words seem to imply that he thinks they are, it matters no jot by what method they are brought about or by whom. Will half a century of' talk be any solace to the burdened taxpayer or".the patient whose circumstances prevent his getting such a medical service as his more fortunate brother can obtain, and which a reorganisation of cur hospital system can bring to him also P Wiry this resentment against the Wellington Hospital Board, which is trying to convert into actually what others believe in but take no steps to effect ? TANGIBLE ACTION NEEDED. Are these matters of no urgency when it is obvious that the mono)' being expended on hospitals at present is 1 not necessary and will indeed not be available P The ground has been well prepared. Fifty years seem an ample tune for discussion of principles. In regard to details, the greatest help can be given by individual hospital boards with a knowledge ol local conditions, and I feel sure .that in an emergency such as this a hospital, board or its committees would not hesitate to meet daily in order to come to definite and helpful' conclusions. The example of the English Cabinet in a time of national crisis showed what could be done in a few days. Let the Palmerston North Board demonstrate what can be accomplished in twenty-eight days. The results of such a deliberation carried out by a number of earnest- men would be of far more value than the spontaneous generalities of a much larger number given without a similar amount ol thought at any conference, and if every board would take the same action something tangible] would be achieved. It was with this object in view that the Wellington Hospital Board submitted - its proposals to all other boards in the country, and it is at least entitled to the sympathetic and constructive criticism of its fel-low-boards. DUTY OF BOARDS.

With another type of criticism the Wellington Board lias no concern. References to loss of popular franchise, pauperisation of- hospitals, domination by the British Medical Association, etc., are totally irrelevant to the discussion of a scheme in which' neither directly nor indirectly are these matters involved. Clear logical thinking, arguments based on facts, trenchant criticism, substitution of advanced proposals ‘ by better suggestions, these are what the Wellington Hospital Board desired in submitting its proposals, and these are what Parliament • will' require, before incorporating them in legislation. The Palmerston North Hospital Board has the charge* of one of the ’most important and populous districts of New Zealand, and it has a duty to give its own contribution to the solution of such urgent national problems as the hospital question. I have no doubt it will now take up this itask with judgment, consideration and concentration, and without heat or irrelevancy.