HOSPITAL ACCOUNTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13148, 10 April 1906, Page 6

HOSPITAL ACCOUNTS.

THE QUESTION OF FEES.

The Finance Committee of the Hospital Board, at a meeting held yesterday, submitted the summary of the receipts and expenditure for the 12 months ended March 31, 1906, as follows:—Receipts: Bank balance, April 1, 1906, £2153 8s 6d; hospital fees, £2863 2s Id; Costley Home fees, £510 lis lOd; Costley Home garden, £577 17s Id; - pensions (gross), £14** 18s 8d; benevolent societies (including subsidies), £I**B 6s 6d; charitable aid recoveries, £315 3s 9d ; local todies' ordinary contributions, £10,7*6 17s 3d; local bodies' contributions (in sections), £*91 17s Id; subsidies, £11,200 13s *d; voluntary contribution:-, refunds, etc., £1356 3s 7 d—total, £33,113 19s Bd. Expenditure: Hospital maintenance (less infectious disuses hospital), £15,528 13s lid; infectious disease?, £785 18s 4d; hospital buildings, £1511 15s 3d; Costley Home maintenance £6004 5s 8d ; Costley Homo buildings £123 7 3s 2d; charitable aid, £4589 17s sd; benevolent societies, £905; office and miscellaneous, £107* 18s 4d; refunds, £*39 8s 9d; road contract, £50; credit balance March 31 £486 13s lOd—total, £33,113 19s Bd. The Chairman (Mr. John McLeod), in reply to Mr. M. Casey, said the Board had collected in fees £626 less than last fear. The Board collected about 25 per cent, of the whole of the fees payable. Mr. Casey: We do "not get 75 per cent of that we ought to get—is that it? The Chairman said the percentage collected by the Board was higher than that collected by any other board in the colony. : Mr. Casey held that the number of people who could afford to pay the fees was smaller in other parts of the colony than in Auckland. The Chairman pointed out that from his own experiences of cases coming before him there were a large number of people in Auckland who could not pay the fees. The report was then adopted.