The Times MONDAY, APRIL 28, 1941. Drastic Re-organisation Required

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 99, 28 April 1941, Page 4

The Times MONDAY, APRIL 28, 1941. Drastic Re-organisation Required

A study of hospital finances and statistics in this country the further it be perused leads ever more strongly to the conclusion that there is an urgent need for a drastic reorganisation of our hospital system, which on the evidence available is at present hopelessly inefficient. It is as much out of step with modern times and methods as would be an old-fashioned carriage factory by comparison with a modern motor assembly plant. This charge is levied at the organisation and design, not at the medical service given. The criticism is not against the professional attention but against the business and administrative side. And even there it is not intended to attack the administrative officers for their work. What is at fault is u shockingly wasteful system. It must be evident to clear-thinking businessmen that hospital costs could be cut hugely, not by cheeseparing but by drastic reorganisation, and a reorganisation without any loss of quality in service or treatment given. Rather the reverse. The foundation lor this assertion is the common man’s knowledge of ordinary domestic household efficiency. A house is built for £IOOO to serve live persons and is run for £5 a week, overhead charges included. And these charges take account of a proportionately large expenditure for clothing which does not enter into hospital accounts. And that household has not the advantages of either large-scale construction or purchasing. It is a mere retail establishment. Hospitals are big wholesale institutions. Our hospital boards in the aggregate expend over £2,500,000 annually. This is a big business. The nation cannot afford inefficiency upon so large a scale. In details of management within the limits of the current system, a satisfactory standard rules. The estimates of our own board, published on Saturday last, bear evidence of careful budgeting. As, for example, bread and butter are not to be wasted. But this is not good enough. Of what real value is a saving of pennies when pounds be squandered—perhaps without intention, certainly. But that does bluntly state the actual situation.