State Responsibility For Hospital Finance

Northern Advocate, 23 June 1941, Page 4

State Responsibility For Hospital Finance

[Special to "Northern Advocate”] GISBORNE, This Day.

The possibility of revision of the system of hospital finance and of alteration in the method of representation on hospital boards, was mentioned by the Minister for Health (Mr Nordmeyer) during a conference with members of the Cook Hospital Board.

The acting-chairman (Mr S. T. Gray) stated that rising expenditure was causing concern. The cost per bed in Gisborne had rise nfrom £lO2 to £145 before the Social Security scheme was introduced and had since risen to £165. , National Problem

The Minister admitted that some boards had reached the peak of expenditure, and could not ask the ratepayers to find more money. Where there was desperate need for accommodation, the time had come to recognise that it was not a local, but a national problem, and that it was necessary to rearrange the hospital rating system. Regarding capital costs, where the burden on the ratepayers was such that they could not be asked to find the money, in his view the charge should become a national responsibility. Officers of the department were working on a scheme to provide relief to some boards, but a good deal of thought must be given to theproposal. ' Departmental Control Answering the chairman, Mr Nordmeyer said ,he personally ' favoured some form of local control which was democratic.

However, if the Government was expected to find larger and larger amounts for hospitals there would need to be more departmental control.

A larger measure of departmental administration, ‘he said, could be accomplished without any disservice to local boards.