HOSPITAL COSTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 117, 17 April 1934, Page 9

HOSPITAL COSTS

MAINTENANCE OF INSTITUTION. ESTIMATE OF £30,000. “On the maintenance of the main institution last year there was spent approximately £28,000, and when it is pointed out that the average number of ocupied beds during the past year was 194 it will be seen that the approximate cost per occupied bed. for the year was £145. In other words, the cost figure for the past year is practically the same as for the preceding year,” said the managing-sec-retary (Mr A. J. Phillipps) in liis report to the Palmerston North Hospital Board yesterday afternoon, when maintenance estimates allocating £30,000 for the main institution and maternity home this year were under discussion. Last, year the estimate was £27,000, but the actual exi>enditure was £30,154 18s lOd. “One factor which has contributed to a greater extent than I anticipated to the increase in cost is the exchange factor,” added the secretary. “On drugs, dressings and household lines, thougn it is impossible to give an exact hgure, I estimate that increased expenditure on account of the variation of the exchange rate during the past year amounted to approximately. £7OO, and there will be a slight increase on this figure this year.” Expenditure uuring the past year had been £3761 12s 2d for provisions, £3192 9s 7d for surgery and dispensary, £7933 18s lOd lor salaries and wages, and £15,260 Ss 3d for domestic and establishment. “It will be noticed that the amount estimated is approximately the same as the expenditure lor the last year,’ the report added. “Expenditure for the last year exceeded the estimate owing to the fact that insufficient provision was made on the last year s estimates to cope with the number of patients which were under treatment. Included in this item is the cost of the district maternity home, which for the year ended March 31, 1933, amounted to £2280. The detailed costing statistics for the current year are not yet completed but the cost of the home will he about the same. The average number of patients in the maternity home was 10.3 for the year ended Alarch 31, 3933, and 9.9 for the year just ended.”