EX-SOLDIER PATIENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21875, 10 August 1934, Page 14

EX-SOLDIER PATIENT

HOSPITAL BOARD POSITION DENIAL OF ALLEGATIONS [BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION! INVERCARGILL. Thursday The Southland Hospital Board today issued a statement in reply to a charge made by the Duncdin Returned Soldiers' Association that it was due to the obstinacy of the board in refusing to be responsible for the payment of his fees that an ex-soldier who died was never given an opportunity of receiving the attention of which he was so sorely in need. The board states that on July 24 the secretary of the Dunedin Returned Soldiers' Association telegraphed the Southland Hospital Board for the admission of the soldier concerned to the Clyde Hospital, indicating that an explanatory letter was following. That letter, which was received at Invercargill the following day, indicated that the soldier concerned was in a very bad tuberculosis condition of long standing, and that he was a married man with eight in his family. The question of payment of fees to the Vincent Hospital Board —had the Returned Soldiers' Association's request for admission to the Clyde Hospital been granted —was never once considered by the Southland Hospital Board, which is paying the Vincent Board for the treatment of a number of patients who are waiting their turn for admission to the Waipiata Sanatorium. The action of the Southland Board in the matter was taken in the very best interests of the patient in making arrangements for his admission to the hospital of his own district, and to say that ho could not obtain the special treatment at that institution that a person in his condition required was incorrect. The Southland Board denies that the negotiations were protracted, and adds that it accepts responsibility for the payment of patients admitted to the Dunedin Hospital and allied institutions. The Southland Board did all in its power to assist the patient without regard to the monetary aspect, and the question of payment to the Vincent or any other board was never once raised in the correspondence.