HOSPITAL MAINTENANCE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19759, 9 April 1926, Page 13

HOSPITAL MAINTENANCE.

REFUNDS TO THE GOVERNMENT. PALMERSTON NORTH DISSATISFIED. (Pbr r 'KiTtD Press Association.) PALMERSTON NORTH, April 8. •While discussing the hospital maintenance estimates to-day, the chairman ot the Palmerston North Hospital Board (Sir James Wilson) voiced a protest against the compulsory refund to the public account of £BO4 18s 9d, in accordance with the provision of the Act tor scaling down all subsidies to maintain the Dominion average of £1 for £l. Ihe position, the Chairman explained, was that if at the end of the year the Government found it had paid out too much in subsidies, all hospital boards were obliged to refund certain amounts which were estimated on a capital value basis. The Palmerston North Board, as it so happened, had received only 14s in the £, so when the £BO4 was repaid the actual Government payment would be only Us in the £, although the Act stated that the lowest subsidy payable to boards would be 14s in the £. The position was most unsatisfactory. The board agreed to protest to the Minister and also to bring the matter before the Hospitals Association. . Although among the larger hospitals, the maintenance cost per bed ot the Palmerston North institution are lower than any other (the cost being £9 3s, as compared with the Dominion average of £11). The board has found it necessary to increase its levies by 20 per cent., chiefly owing to added maintenance and expenditure on new buildings.