Mangonui Hospital Board Affairs

Northern Advocate, 20 February 1939, Page 2

Mangonui Hospital Board Affairs

The Mangonui Hospital Board met at Kaitaia on Thursday.

The Department of Justice, replying to a request that an additional maintenance officer be appointed for Kaitaia, stated that the Clerk of the Court had recently been appointed maintenance officer and would arrange for all reasonable assistance.

The Auckland Hospital Board wrote stating that it was unable to revise the charge of 15/- per day for both children and adults from outside districts. :

The secretary: Our board should reciprocate.

The Chairman: The present charge is 12/- per day for adults. It Was decided that the charges for patients from Auckland district treated at the Mangonui Hospital should in fuftite be 15/- per day for both adults and children. A letter was received from the Department of Health stating that the Minister had agreed to a reduction of £25 for the first year in the £250 the board Was to pay towards the district nurse for the North. Allowance was made for the fact that the nurse had hot been supplied with a car as provided for in the agreement.

Treating Crippled Children

Commenting on a case for treatment |jpy the Crippled Children’s Society, the ‘ Secretary said the committee for inI vestigating cases in the district at I present was composed of town board * members, but there was a probability , that the hospital board would replace the town board as a committee as it | would ;be in a better position to inivestigate individual cases.

i A letter was received from the ' Kaitaia Volunteer Fire Brigade ask’,'ihg for assistance.

f It was pointed out that the brigade rwas now in action and have new and iUP-to-date equipment, but further 'rhoney was needed to provide uniforms ' for “the men and for other purposes. To show the degree of efficiency already attained by the brigade it was stated that, in a test alarm given from the hospital,, the brigade was on the sbene and had the hose run out within tWo minutes.

The secretary explained that no subsldy could be obtained from the Government until a fire board was formed. The: brigade was collecting front, business people. He thought £lO wo ilia be sufficient from the board.

Mr Michie: jWe could make it £lO/10 in'the meantime and review the position later. Ifj there is further need the board can make another grant later on. I do hbt v/ant to see the brigade scratching too hard for funds. ’ It in the interests of tile ratepayers and it is the ratepayers’ money the board controls. It was decided to make a grant of £lO/10.

Sanction of Maoris rlt was reported that £ 1 ‘per week had been deducted from the pension of a Maori ih the North as a contributiort* towards the cost of a house that was to be built and though two years had elapsed since the deductions commenced the man had no house yet. Mr Miehie moved that they write to the Commissioner of Pensions asking if deductions of this kind were perrhitted from persons.

'■ The chairman: In the Ahipara district. those whose applications for houses, had been granted had had deductions made from, their pensions from the date on which they were granted.

Mr Miehie; We should still protest. •In-such cases the ratepayers have to provide for necessities which should be met out of the pension. The deductions strike at a principle underlying pensions. If the Government wishes to build up a building fund it should be done in some other way. The chairman mentioned the case of a Maori woman who had £2 per month deducted for a house not yet built, from her pension for herself as a widow and four children. This woman did hot object and was able to live on the £8 which remained, but actually she did not need a house and ohly applied for one so as to be in lihe with her neighbours. Mr Steed: The system is absolutely Wrong. Mr Hoskirt: An old-age pension is based on what is needed to support a pensioner. If there is a deduction someone has to make it up. Mr Miehie: The provision of many of the houses is an economic waste. Mr Matthews said he had been informed that before a house was built for a native an acre of land had to be made over to the Department, which would therefore always control the property. The motion was carried. Patients Treated. The secretary reported that the number of patients in hospital on January 1 was 32, and 65 were admitted during the month, so that the number treated for the month was 97. The number discharged was 62 and one had died, leaving 34 in the institution at the end of the month.

The average number of occupied beds for January was 30,9. compared with 29.9 for December and 25.42 for January last year. A letter was received from Mr A. P. Morgan, architect, giving particulars of what Was proposed with re-

gard to the laundry site and lay-out of the building. The department, it was stated, would not agree to die building being in wood, but would have no objection to the partitions being in this material. Comment was made by members on the heavy account, of £SOO received from the Auckland Hospital Board, including £237 for patients fn the Wilson Home. One item of £122 17/4 was for a Maori boy from the North. The accounts passed bj- the board totalled £827 6/1.

The secretary said there was a credit balance of £675 and subsidies due amounted to £713.

Fees to be Reviewed.

On the motion of Mr Michie, it was decided to review hospital fees owing, at a special meeting in March. Mr Steed, referring to the place of residence for the district nurse in the North, said that Te Kao would be much preferable to Te Hapua. A part of the road which the nurse had to traverse was, at times,, in an unuseable state, and if this matter was taken up now they might be able to impress the Minister of Public Works.

The secretary was asked to make inquiries into the position with regard to a case of illness which did not receive attention owing to a difficulty in using the car. The board’s liability in case of any accident due to the ramp at the entrance to the hospital was mentioned by the chairman. Tire secretary said notices of warning had been put up, but he had not yet been able to arrange for lighting. Tlie best way would be an underground lighting system which would show up the ramp at night. The secretary was asked to discuss the matter with an electrician. Nurse ta be Shifted, On the motion of Mr Steed, it was decided to write to the Health Department requesting that the shifting of the place of residence for the northern nurse from Te Hapua to Te Kao be treated as urgent. - It was further resolved that the Minister of Public Works be asked to have the road between Waiharara and Ngataki. a distance of 14 miles, metalled.

In moving that the medical superintendent’s salary be increased by £SO in the meantime, to be reviewed in six months’ time, Mr C. B. Michie referred to the great increase which had taken place in the work. Though the medical superintendent had his private practice, he sometimes had to refuse patients because of the claims of the hospital. Taking the 19Sf> figures for the hospital and comparing them with those for 1936, there had been an increase in maternity and other cases from 618 to 707, and this year there would be a further increase. It was not this that influenced him so much in proposing an increase in salary as the operations and X-ray diagnoses, which had increased to 104 per annum.

Mr L. J. Matthews seconded the motion, which was carried with one dissentient.

Salaries Increased,/

The secretary’s salary was increased on the motion of Mr Michi'e by 10 per cent, on the same voting. Tlie increases were made retrospective to January 1. Mr T. S. Houston reported on the Hospital Boards’ Conference held in New Plymouth. The most disappointing feature of the whole conference, he said, was the Minister’s speech. He side-tracked everything and gave them nothing definite with regard to inpayments to boards under the Social Security Scheme,

The chairman, Mr Miehie. and the secretary were appointed delegates to a proposed conference of the four Northern boards to be held shortly.