HOSPITAL DISTRICTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19783, 2 November 1927, Page 10

HOSPITAL DISTRICTS.

The conference between Dr. Valintine and the Waihi Hospital Board has impressively instanced the necessity of caution,in applying the policy of amalgamating hospital districts in the interests of administrative economy. On paper, the principle has merits ; in practice, it may lead to results prejudicial to the smaller institutions. To have 44 districts.

each with its separate body of control, may mean excessive overhead costs ; yet to reduce this number to 12 or 14, as the Health Department proposes, may place some of the smaller hospitals at a disadvantage. The Waihi board's attitude is sensible : it is prepared for fusion with Thames, provided the status and efficiency of the Waihi hospital are not impaired. The crux of the question is m that proviso. The Director-General of Health, as he confessed, had overlooked the service rendered by the Waihi institution to a considerable surrounding area, and had consequently underestimated its requirements. He therefore very properly agreed, when this oversight was pointed out, to enlarge the schedule of facilities he had previously deemed sufficient. The merits of this particular case need not be discussed ; but what is clear

froni it is the real danger, in the department's striving for economical administration, of the smaller hospitals receiving inadequate attention to their requirements. Population is rapidly increasing in the Dominion, especially in some areas, and the necessity for hospital facilities is increasing correspondingly To take 20 beds as a "recognised Dominion average," and apply this standard without regard to local conditions, is a palpable blunder. Such an employment, of the "rule of thumb" is likely to do harm rather than good. Economy is desirable, but in hospital administration what, is of first importance is efficiency in ministry to the sick. So long as this is secured, there is nothing to be said against the decrease of the number of districts by an amalga mation of some of them ; yet the risk of this process resulting in a decreased service by some of the coun-

try hospitals is too great to be ignored. It is all very well to say that t.he time has come to call a halt in expenditure on hospital maintenance, but unless the department can, at the same time, call a halt in population's increase and in the inroads of accident and disease, its zeal for economy may do the Dominion—and its rural hospitals particularly—a disservice.