HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20202, 13 September 1927, Page 9

HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATION.

' AMERICA’S EFFICIENCY. 'VALUE OF CENTRALISATION. (Special to Daily Times.) AUCKLAND, September 12. The wondesful efficiency and the high standard of administration maintained in public hospitals throughout the United States greatly impressed Mr Murdoch Fraser (chairman of the New Plymouth Hospital Board, and a member of the Dominion Board of Health), who returned by the Niagara from a four months’ visit to the Unit- I States and Canada. Mr raser was given every assistance by the American authorities, and was enabled to inspect no fewer than 65 institutions between Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon; “ I consider the United States leads the world in hospital administration." stated Mr Fraser. “The public is very generous, and the institutions are very .wealthy. I also found that the authorities are ever ready to learn. Whenever I met them 1 could get no information from them until I told them about our own hospitals and the way they are run." As the result of his visit Mr Fraser is i- re than ever convinced that the weakness in the hospital system of this country is that there are too many hospitals. As an instance, he stated that there was an institution at New Plymouth, and within a radius of 40 miles there were other institutions at Stratford and r.t Hawera. In the United States a polity of centralisation had been adopted, and this might well pe followed in the Dominion. Centralisation led to greater co-ordination, less expenditure, and greater efficiency.