HOSPITAL CONTROL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21763, 31 March 1934, Page 14

HOSPITAL CONTROL

ROTORUA INSTITUTION TRANSFER COMPLETED WAIKATO BOARD TAKES OVER [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT] HAMILTON, Friday . The control of the King George V. Hospital at Rotorua will bo transferred from the Health Department to the Waikato Hospital Board as from April 1. The transfer has been the. subject of negotiations between the department and the board for nearly a year, but a final agreement was reached at the board's last meeting on March ,S. Under the arrangement made tho present buildings were transferred to the board free of capital cost and the site, which is domain land, has been leased to the board for 21 years at a peppercorn rental. Tho existing buildings are to be reduced by tho board to accommodate 73 beds, and to enable thin work to be carried out the department agreed to pay the board £3300. All department furnishings, equipment, and stores are to pass to tho board free of cost. Liabilities incurred up to the dato of handing over the institution are to lie discharged by the department. Provision has been made for the free treatment of the Ngatiwhakaue tribe, the original donors of the land on which the hospital stands. The King George V. Hospital was built during the war to accommodate returned soldiers who were sent there from all parts of New Zealand for orthopaedic treatment. As this special' purpose now exists only to a minor degree, and as the institution has gradually developed as ah ordinary hospital, the department decided that it must be relieved of control,, and that its government" must be transferred to the hospital board of the district in which it is situated. Thw Hospital Board has expressed itself as well satisfied with the terms of tho transfer. Dr. J. G. Mackereth, of Hamilton, and Sister M. M. Hay, of To Kuiti, have been appointed superintendent and matron respectively of 'the hospital.