Amalgamation Of Northland Hospital Boards Advocated

Northern Advocate, 1 November 1945, Page 3

Amalgamation Of Northland Hospital Boards Advocated

Amalgamation of the six Northland hospital boards at the earliest possible moment is advocated by the Local Government Committee, presented to Parliament yesterday. The basis suggested is on the rate per pound of capital value ruling in the average of the years 1935-36 to 1938-39,

The report states: “The outstanding case is Northland, where there are six small hospital districts, practical ly none of which can provide a full service, and ail of which are dependent on the Auckland Hospital (and, in some cases, the Whangarei Hospital) for technical and other services. We recommend that reorganisation of hospital districts throughout New Zealand should be one of the very early tasks to be undertaken by the Local Government Commission.” Local Committees The necessity of retaining local control could be met by a system of local hospital committees. Amalgamation of hospital districts would not, in general, mean the disappearance of local hospitals, but rather that they would function as part of a scheme for a larger district. For each such hospital a local committee would form a liaison between the local residents and the hospital board for the district as a whole. This was actually suggested by the Right Hon. R. J. Seddon in 1895. Impressive evidence given by the Health Department was to the effect that more effective hospital service could, be rendered if, instead of the 42 hospital districts at present, there was a considerably smaller number.