HOSPITAL AND CHARITABLE AID BOARD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11058, 9 May 1899, Page 3

HOSPITAL AND CHARITABLE AID BOARD.

The Hospital and Charitable Aid Board met yesterday at the offices Higlntreet. There were present: Messrs; J. Stiehbury (chairman), Wilson, Becroft, Allen, Jamieson, Taylor, Bruce, Warren, and Friend. Out Patients: Dr. Hooper, the medical officer of the Auckland dispensary, reported that during the month of April 43 new cases were treated ; 401 prescriptions had been made up. An epidemic of whooping cough still continued, but it was of a mild type. he number of deaths was three. Donation : Messrs. Cook and Sons wrote donating some glassware to the Children's Hospital. The gift was acknowledged with thanks. Medical Student's' Application : The application of Mr. Malcolm May, for leave to attend the hospital to prosecute his studies as a medical student, was referred to the medical superintendent for his report. Offer of Filters: Messrs. Seegner, Langgutb, and Co., wrote offering to supply the Board with Pasteur filters, similar to those recommended by Dr. R. H. Makgill, in his annual report, for use at the hospital. The Board decided to request Dr. Baldwin to confer with Dr. Makgill, the lion, bacteriologist, as to the number of filters absolutely necessary for the hospital. Cancer Patient : The application of the Thames Board for the admission of a man from its district to the cancer ward at the Cost-ley Home, Auckland, was refused, and the Board decided to reply that no cancer patients from outside districts, where there was a hospital, would be admitted to the Costley Home. Tenders for Supplies : It was decided to call tenders for the supplies required at the hospital, etc, for the yeai 1899-1900. On the motion of Mr. Allen, drapery was added to the list of articles usually tendered for. Government Subsidies : Consideration of Mr. Taylor's frequently adjourned motion, re Government subsidies, as follows, was resumed :—" That the Government be requested to subsidise hospital and charitable aid boards at so much per 100 of population, in each hospital district, instead of subsidising them upon the amount of rates collected from local bodies as at present, as the system now in force is calculated to foster a spirit of carelessness and profligacy in spending money, while the system herein proposed would operate as a strong incentive to each district to practise the greatest economy and carefulness in its own interests." Mr. Taylor mentioned that since they had the question under consideration before he had put the question before the public in a letter which appeared in the Herald of March 27, in which he showed that if the Government paid up the difference to Auckland between what she had received and what Christchurch had received, as subsidy on the basis of population, as he proposed, Auckland would receive from the Government enough to provide funds for all hospital and charitable aid requirements for the next two years, without levying a penny on our ratepayers. On the principle he proposed we should receive more by £13,953 17s than we had done. Since last meeting he had had a Government return lent to him by Mr. John Gordon, which clearly showed that for 12 years past Auckland had received nothing like a fair amount of money for hospital purposes, as compared with other large centres. Prom this return he had drafted a comparative statement of the amount received from the Government by each large hospital district, from 1886-7 to 1897-8. inclusive, as under :—Auckland, £30,863 ; Christchurch, £52,634 ; Dunediii, £34,132 ; Wellington, £45,692. During the same time patients' fees had been collected as follows Auckland, £24.705 ; Christchurch, £6323 ; Dunedin, £11,336 ; Wellington, £13.752. From another table he had drawn the amounts received from Government for the three years ending 1896-7 by the large Charitable Aid Board districts as follows :—Auckland, £15,877 ; Asiiburton and North Canterbury, £26,397 ; Otago United, £25,835; Wellington, £24,294. This showed that Auckland had received little more than half that of any of the other districts. Mr. Allen seconded the motion. He thought the plan would be a far more equitable method than that at present in vogue. The motion was carried.

Captain Rough's Gift : On the motion of the chairman the Finance Committee was empowered to place Captain Rough's gift, and the subsidy amounting to £1100, on fixed deposit for one year. Hospital Patients: Dr. Baldwin reported that in the last fortnight 42 males and 19 female patients bad been admitted. There had been five deaths, and there remained on May 6, 97 males and 42 females. Eight cases of typhoid were admitted during the term, from Ponsonby, Western Springs, Grey-street, Wellesley-strcet, Newton Road, Kailiu, Devonport, and Basque Road. Leave of Absence : Nurse Rowles (in illhealth) was granted six months' leave of absence on half-pay. Central Board of Health Duties : Mr. Wilson gave notice of his intention to move at next meeting as under: "That this Board, in view of the abominably frequent recurrence of infectious diseases in the Auckland Hospital district, respectfully represents to the Central Board of Health the necessity for a more stringent supervision of the work of the local boards of health, so far as the same relates to sanitation, this Board in the exercise of its hospital administration having reason to believe that local boards of health arc not carrying out the functions imposed upon them by the Public Health Act, 1876, and its amendments, especially in the following particulars, namely : (a) That the notices required by the said Act to be sent into local boards by medical practitioners are not infrequently omitted without cognisance thereof being taken by the local boards ; (b) that local boards almost invariably neglect to send to the Central Board annual reports in accordance with the provisions of the Public Health Amendment Act, 1877, and further this Board is of opinion that insufficient attention is paid by local bodies as well as by the Central Board of Health to the matter of ensuring the supply in populous districts of pure water for domestic and other purposes, and to the proper disposition of garbage, nightsoil, etc.; and this Board recommends that it would be in the direct interests of the public were the local bodies in this district to amalgamate for sanitary purposes, as so many of those bodies surrounding the chief centres of population are interested in the purity of the water supply to such centre."