Problem for Hospital Board

Northern Advocate, 9 August 1938, Page 4

Problem for Hospital Board

THE threatened closing of private maternity hospitals, _ on account of the difficulty of keeping going under conditions imposed by recent legislation, presents hospital boards with a serious problem. In the case of the Whangarei Hospital Board it was stated at the monthly meeting yesterday that the closing of one private nursing home alone in the town would mean that 100 additional cases a year would- have to be accommodated at the public hospital. The board is, of course, willing to take them just as it has to be prepared to meet any public need that arises; but the difficulty is that additional accommodation will have to lie provided, and the board’s commitments are already heavy. Hospital boards, like many other people concerned in the treatment of the sick, are at present in a fog, not knowing what lies ahead. They will, no doubt, be enlightened when the Social Security legislation is placed before the House this week, but they will still be uncertain as to how that legislation is going to work out in practice. In the meantime, such developments as the threatened closing of private maternity hospitals complicate the position. When the special committee which inquired into maternity services brought down its reports a few weeks ago, it particularly commented on the high proportion of New Zealand women who chose maternity homes rather than their own homes, and it approved of this tendency. At the same time, it recommended the provision of further maternity hospitals, especially in country districts. But if the hospital boards have to step into the breach caused by closing of maternity hospitals in the tows, it will obviously be difficult for them to extend the facilities in the country without a liberal measure of Government assistance.