HOSPITAL FINANCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20074, 11 October 1928, Page 11

HOSPITAL FINANCE.

PROBLEM IN SYDNEY.

NEED FOR MORE BEDS.

[VUOM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] SYDNEY. Oct. t.

Despite constant ialk of reform, Sydney seems impotent to deal effectively with its public hospital problem, which is daily becoming more acute. An illustration of it is the tragic and poignant position of ono of the largest and best-known of these hospitals,- Royal-Prince Alfred, as revealed a day or two ago by- thoso charged with its control. The fact that people aro flooding it with applications from all parts of Australia and Now Zealand for cancer treatment, in tbo new department which it has established under tlio Federal Government's scheme, makes the position worse. With, vast commitments, and going back at the rate of £20,000 a year, the ho?p> tal has a bigger army of sufferers waiting for admission than ever it can hope to accommodate. At its wits' end, Hie hospital has to make improvised beds out of couches ordinarily used for convalescent patients, when, as is always the case, its 530 beds aro fully occupied. Of 400 people awaiting admission to-day 100 aro inoperable cancer cases. Tlio fact is otlicially admitted that, not long oro, four convalescent patients had to bo removed from their beds at three o'clock in the morning, to make room for tho victims oj a bad motor smash. If it is a simple case of the removal of tonsils, for example, one has to wait two or three months for admission. The clear-cut tact is that Sydney to-day has not sufficient public hospital accommodation for its needs Although tho Government has sternly sot its face against the idea, for fear obviously of offending the church, there are many in the community who still think that it ought to run a lottery, along tho lines of tho Queensland "Golden Casket" scheme, to help to relieve tho position, and at tho same time keep within tho State, for a great humanitarian service, a vast suni of money that now pours out of it and into tho Ternplo of Clianco.