OBSTETRICS HOSPITAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21806, 22 May 1934, Page 11

OBSTETRICS HOSPITAL

THE OTAGO PROPOSAL GOVERNMENT AND BOARD " DISHEARTENING POSITION " [by telegraph—OWN correspondent] DUNEDIN, Monday The position now reached is most disheartening and unsatisfactory for those who have worked so hard toward attaining a new obstetrics hospital," said the chairman of the Otago Hospital Board, j\lr. W. E. S. Knight, this morning, when asked to comment on the latest communication from the Minister of Health. "The Government's latest offer is nothing but a threat —a threat that the St. Helens Hospital will be closed in three months unless we agree to the proposals," said Mr. Knight. Continuing, Mr. Knight said he had very grave doubts whether the board would agree to the proposals submitted by tho Minister, and the position that would then arise was terrible to contemplate. As far as he was concerned personally, he would never agree to the proposals put forward by the Government. The Hospital Board had told the Government that it would accept £20,000 and the St. Helens property and that final offer had now been rejected by the Government, whose final offer was £IO,OOO. "I would like to point out for the fiftieth time that a definite offer was made by the Government of £50,000 for the purpose of purchasing land, the erection of buildings and the provision of equipment for an obstetric hospital in Dunedin," said Mr. Knight, "and, further, that the department agreed to provide £2OOO a year for five years toward the cost of the maintenance of the hospital, subject to review at the end of that period." The present position, Mr. Knight commented, was that the Government was offering a grant of £IO,OOO and a subsidy on levies on a basis of £1 for £1 of -£4750, a total of £14,750, as against the original offer of £50,000. He would let the figures speak for themselves.

In the. course of a further communication to the Otago Hospital Board on the subject of the obstetrics hospital, the Minister of Health informed the board in effect that unless it agreed within three months to. take over the St. Helens Hospital, that institution would be closed, and the board would have to make arrangements to provide the necessary accommodation for maternity patients in its own hospitals.