DOMINION’S HOSPITALS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 11 August 1928, Page 4

DOMINION’S HOSPITALS

“A GOOD SYSTEM”

OPINION OF MINISTER OF HEALTH

(By Telegraph) (1 rom Ilio Mail s” Parliamentary Reporter). -

\V ELLIN G'lON, 9th August. Various aspects of the system of hospital administration in the Dominion were referred to> by the Minister of Health (the Hon. J. A. Young) in the House of Representatives to-day when replying to remarks made during the course of the debate on the Health Report. Referring to the representations of the Australasian Collego of Surgeons that private wards should bo attached to public hospitals for tho benefit of privato practitioners tho Minister said there was nothing in the Act to prevent a board from setting aside a portion of its hospital for the convenience of a private practitioner. That was done in the case of some small country hospitals, but there was no prospect of establishing the system generally/ . For one thing, who would find the money? The member for Auckland West (Mr Savage) had asked what would be the cost of making hospital treatment free. Roughly the cost would be about £3,000,000 or £1,000,000 more than the present cost of hospital service to the community. IT had also to be remembered that if the cost of hospital treatment had to be borne by the Consolidated Fund there would be the risk of losing voluntary contributions, which last year amounted to £25,000. Moreover the question of the provision of hospitals would become a political question and that would lead to a difficulty for the Minister of Finance. He thought the present system was a- good one and worked satisfactorily in every way. With regard to levies the Minister stated that he had suggested the holding of a conference between munioipal interests on the one Hand and rural interests on the other to see if some basis could not be reached for the finding of the money, which would he more satisfactory than the present. The complaint up to the present had been not so much against the amount of the contributions but against the method by which levies were imposed.