THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, JULY 11, 1925. BASE HOSPITALS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19529, 11 July 1925, Page 10

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, JULY 11, 1925. BASE HOSPITALS.

An important aspect of the requirements of the Dunedin Hospital. was discussed at the special meeting, of the Hospital Board on Thursday evening in conference with representatives of the University Council and of the honorary staff. The discussion, and particularly the illuminating review of the position by Dr Barnett, made it very clear that the development of the Hospital as an institution, meeting comprehensively the needs of the community, is being hampered by a difficulty as regards finance with which the local authority cannot fairly be expected to cope. In present circumstances, the special departments which an important hospital such a» that at Dunedin should be able to provide for the treatment of cases calling for special skill, accommodation, and equipment—cases with w T hich the smaller hospitals cannot reasonably be expected to deal—are not receiving the attention that is requisite in the interests of progress and efficiency. This is because the funds available leave no margin for adequate expenditure in the desired direction. The steps which the Hospital, Board, in association with the Medical Faculty and the University Council, has been considering 'with a view to the removal of this handicap involve an appeal to the Government on grounds the reasonableness of which is scarcely open to dispute. The appeal is based, as a matter of fact, upon recommendations embodied in the report of the Hospital Commission of 1921 to which effect has not so far been given. That the Dunedin Hospital authorities should feel impelled to take the initiative in requesting that the Government should now act upon the Commission’s recommendation, that an extra grant should be made annually to base hospitals to provide for the adequate and efficient development of special departments, is a circumstance reflecting the extent to which their present financial disability frustrates their desire to effect the kind of development emphasised by the Commission. The special departments particularised by the Commission are in many instances already installed at the four principal hospitals in the dominion. In the case of the Dunedin Hospital, it has been pointed out by Dr Barnett, all of the nine departments specified by the Commission have already been established or are in process of establishment. That circumstance should of course fortify the claim that is now being advanced on behalf of tins institution.

While the point is to be noted that the Government is not being asked to make any distinction in favour of the Dunedin Hospital, but merely to accord it financial assistance to which all base hospitals should be considered to be entitled, there are circumstances none the less that attach special cogency to the appeal on its behalf. The Dunedin Hospital has a particular standing among the institutions which the Commission recommended should be constituted base hospitals, in that it is in effect a university hospital, by virtue of the fact that it is au essential adjunct of the Otago Medical School. Moreover, the claim for financial assistance for its special departments gathers strength from the fact that it has a hearing upon the efficiency of what is recognised by the Government as a national institution. The representations that will be made on behalf of the

Hospital Board and the University should on their merits receive the sympathetic consideration of the Government. The requirements of the situation as specified by the Commission over four years ago have probablv become accentuated in th© case of each base hospital since the Commission framed its report. Unquestionably that is so in the case of Dunedin. Th*> method of meeting the rrequirements recommended by the Commission provides a simple basis upon which a small proportion of the total State contribution for hospital maintenance should be ear-marked for the needs of the special departments at the base hospitals. Any criticism on the score of differentiation by the Government among hospital boards in respect of its contributions is effectually answered by the fact that what is proposed is in the interests of the efficiency of the hospital system of the dominion as a whole, and that the special departments which the base hospitals alone can provide are intended for the benefit of the whole community, and not of a particular district only. The Hospital Commission was careiul to make it clear that if the base hospitals received a special subsidy contribution other Hospital boards should have the right of sending patients to them for special treatment. In this way the advantages accruing from the development of special departments in the principal hospitals would he made generally available to th© people of the dominion.