£13,000 DEFICIT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22864, 20 October 1937, Page 14

£13,000 DEFICIT

AUCKLAND HOSPITAL SHARP RISE IN COSTS HIGHER FEES POSSIBLE With payments exceeding the estimates by £10,248 and receipts short by £3OIB, a net deficiency of £13,266 for the six months ending September 30 was revealed in a report submitted to the Auckland Hospital Board yesterday. It was stated that the actual payments closely approximated tha estimates, except for the Auckland Hospital and the Auckland Infirmary, where the excess was due to increased staff and wages and rising prices. There had been a welcome reduction in the cost of outdoor relief and for patients in the sanatoria, although this would be offset in the next six months by the increased fees now chargeable at both sanatoria. The receipts this year were estimated to the full amount, in order to keep the levy down, but it was still anticipated that there would be no deficiency in this respect at the end of the year. As compared with the actual receipts at the same time last year, the returns from all patients' fees for this year were greater by £5300. The cost a patient treated had shown an increase of £2 19s 3d, as compared with Last year, and these figures indicated the effect of rising costs, reduced hours and increased wages. Apart from exercising the strictest economy, the board had no means of combating the inevitable increase, which could safely be fixed, the report stated, at a permanent rise of at least 25 per cent. In the circumstances it would appear necessary for consideration to be given to an increase in patients' fees'to a similar percentage from 12s a day to 15s a day. Even this figure would not cover the cost of maintenance.