HOSPITAL LEGISLATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18446, 6 January 1922, Page 4

HOSPITAL LEGISLATION.

When tho Government took the false step which divided the local hospital district it created a crop of Vnecessary trouble. Hospital expenditure will undoubtedly be increased as a result of the separation, and as a preliminary the Otago Board must find the sum of £13,958 to satisfy the claims of South Otago. The deputation which waited bn the Minister of Internal Affairs yesterday suffered from the disadvantage that the Government has deoidccTon a line of policy which, from the point of view of tho .Otago'Board, makes it impossible to suggest a perfect solution of a serious difficulty. Tho Minister, as one of the local members of Parliament, evidently suffered from the same embarrassment. Mr Stewart would doubtless help tho Otago Board if he could, but t>c situation is beyond his control. The most he can possibly do is to try to ease the strain to which an unjust burden subjects the Otago Board, and that he has promised to do. Apart altogether from the injustice which the Hospitals and Charitable Institutions Bill perpetrates on the Otago Board the Bill has at least one other feature of far-reaching importance. - In Ibgislation which ; was passed in 1909, power was conferred on tho boards to make such appointments as were necessary <fco conduct the institutions under their control, hut the appointment of any medical officer (other than an honorary medical officer) or of a master, manager, or matron could not bo made “until the expiration of twenty-one days after the Minister has been notified of the intention to make such appointments, unless the Minister has approved of such appointment.” The meaning of the section is not wholly free from ambiguity, but in practice the Minister’s approval was merely a matter of form. In the!

amending Act of 1913, a secretary was included among those officers whose appointment was subject to the lapse of twenty-one days unless the Minister had already of the appointment. It may be rinferred that the, object of the section was to give the Minister a voice in the appointment of officers, but in effect the Minister had only advisory power 'without.. the absolute right to veto any appointment. In the Bill which is , now before Parliament it is proposed to give the Minister. an absolute right to veto,- which covers the appointment of honorary medical ' officers, and of house stewards : and engineers as well as that of the paid professional staff. In practice this power might*, easily prove to' be pernicious and be utilised as a medium of exerting political patronage of a distinctly obnoxious character. It is absurd that it should be exercised in the case of the appointment'of a house steward or an engineer. With equal justification the appointment of a housemaid or a laundress niight be made subject to Ministerial control, for the department is i just as likely to know the qualifications of a housekeeper or laundress as those of a house steward or engineer. The point was made by the' deputation that the hospital hoards arev elected by the people, and the point is vital. Hospital boards are, within their sphere of action, as much a part of the dominion’s system of representative government as Parliament itself, Jhe anxiety evinced by some departments to whittle away the rights of local authorities, and exercise autocratic powers by an extension/ of bureaucracy control should be curbed. In the case of ‘ high professional appointments the opinion of the Minister (which in such cases is formed on the advice of the department) may bo helpful to boards, but why power should be sought by a Minister to veto the appointment of a house steward or an engineer made by a responsible board is beyond reasonable comprehension.'* Even in ttfe case of certain professional appointments -.the knowledge possessed by the department respecting the applicants may/ not be superior to that possessed by representative and responsible boards. Even if it is superior the advisory powers at present vested in the are quite sufficient to meet all the exigencies of the case. The most the Minister should desire is that his J opinion should receive due weight, as it always will, when highly important professional appointments are, contemplated, \ When further powers are sought they represent an encroachment on tho functions -oi boards" which are os intolerable 4s they are unnecessary. / , \