The Times. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 1942. The Business of Healing

Manawatu Times, Volume 67, Issue 94, 22 April 1942, Page 4

The Times. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 1942. The Business of Healing

A hospital is an organisation devoted to healing. As such it must always be provided with the best that money can buy in buildings, plant, supplies and services. Here is no proper place i'or pinch-penny economies. All will be agreed upon that. However, though this is so beyond all question, the actual business or financial aspect of a hospital cannot be disregarded. It would ill serve the community for extravagance to abound beneath the cloak of humanitarianism. Generosity in this case is proper, but extravagant expenditure never is. Waste is a vice; care and economy are virtues. That businesslike management is needful in hospital conduct is emphasised in the volume of the accounts of our own large institution, the Palmerston North Public Hospital—a declaration not to be interpreted as implying lack of economical and careful management, but rather to emphasise the responsibility born| by the board and the executive officers. Here, in this business of healing, is a very large business organisation, with a large staff and a big turnover. The estimates for the current year, as published yesterday, show that it will cost over £3OOO weekly to run the hospital and incorporated institutions. The total of outgoings is £160,178, made up of maintenance, plus sinking fund payments of £8978. Income is derived from maintenance receipts of £85,375; maintenance levies upon local bodies of £38,158 and the balance is provided apparently by Government subsidy. The local body levies rise this year in total to what appears to be a record height. They are up almost £4OOO on last year to £48,469. Over 20 per cent, of this sum (£10,311) is devoted to capital expenditure. A few years ago an analysis of the levy burden in this district showed that a grave injustice applied to rural dwellers. In one case they paid over four times as much as citizens of Palmerston North. Apparently that such anomalies still persist. If so here is an opportunity for reform. The levy upon land valuation should be replaced by a per capita levy, thus making contributions in reasonable accord with the patients contributed by the various areas. The hospital serves a population of over 50,000, approximately 13,000 families. Its cost of £160,000 therefore represents approximately £l3 per family yearly. That is quite a substantial sum to be found by the average household. Por found it must be, and is—even though mainly indirectly—per local body levy and Government subsidy. So is it to be seen that our hospital is a very large business institution and one affecting in two-fold fashion all citizens. Its cost falls upon all and is a burden of some weight. On the other hand, all are potential patients, and as such must desire that it should provide the very best facilities for treatment. There is every reason to regard highly the standard of the Palmerston North Hospital—a well-founded and efficiently-conducted healing centre.