HOSPITAL BOARD SUPPLIES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22742, 30 November 1935, Page 12

HOSPITAL BOARD SUPPLIES

The confidential report transmitted to the Otago Hospital Board by the Director-general of Health, which hag been made available for publication, directs attention to the possibility that economies may be effected in various ways in connection with the purchase of stores. An inspection by an official of the Health Department has shown that the price paid by the Board for a number of lines that are required in the hospital dispensary compares very unfavourably with the price paid for corresponding lines by another large metropolitan hospital in New Zealand which indents its supplies. It is not improbable that the difference between the total expenditure on these dispensary lines by the Otago Hospital Board and the other metropolitan hospital, which indents its supplies, may not be very great, but the argument that a hospital authority should not pay more for its supplies than is necessary carries so much weight' that 'it cannot reasonably be ignored. A general looseness in administrative methods is apt to be associated with a lack of care in the purchase of supplies, and it may be anticipated, therefore, now that attention has been drawn to the fact that the Board can secure dispensary supplies on more favourable terms than those on which it has been obtaining them, the committee that is to report on the subject will recommend some departure from the existing practice. There are other points of some interest in the report which was submitted fib the Hospital Board on Thursday night. A few of them relate to matters of routine, but the attention of the Board may suitably be given to the observation by the Director-general of Health that, in his judgment, the cost of administering the store system in Dunedin is “ out of proportion to the benefits gained ” and to his recommendation that the Hospital should provide for, and store, its own bulk supplies.

V THE POLAR FLIGHT Th* continued lack of information from Mr Lincoln Ellsworth ia mystifying, but it ..it perhaps still too early to allow genuine anxiety to take the place of perplexity. The explanation may bo simply that Mr Ellsworth’s wireless apparatus is not functioning. In the meantime it .is comforting to have Admiral Byrd’s assurance, cabled from Chicago a few days ago, that • it is reasonable to conclude that the explorer and his companion are either at or near - Little America. - Admiral Byrd added that there was no good reason why the airmen should not pick out a good landing place from a high altitude, if they were forced to chance an emergency landing. This opinion is happily supported by one of the last messages heard from the Polar Star, which stated that, while many crevasses had been seen, there were also “ a lot of places where one could land.” If Mr Ellsworth has actually reached the Bay of Whales, as is the hope expressed in messages from the Wyatt Earp, he should not lack for food. In any case he apparently has supplies to last for two months, and, according to Admiral Byrd, a substantial store of motor spirit is “cached” there for his use, should it be needed. The Wyatt Earp apparently'intends to follow Mr Ellsworth’s instructions to the letter, in the matter of the laying of depots, before proceeding to the Bay of Whales, which, it states, will probably not be reached by it before the middle of January. It is fervently to be hoped that reassuring news of the Polar Star’s crew will have been received long before then. A message from the base at Dundee Island on November 24 reported that the silence of Mr Ellsworth’s wireless for so long was not then causing undue worry, the last word received haying described the plane as functioning perfectly in favourable weather, with the crew confident of reaching their destination. But that was nearly a week ago, and the silence continues. Mr Ellsworth’s spectacular dash from Dundee Island across the Antarctic continent to Admiral Byrd’s former base at Little America involved a flight of 2140 miles, 1300 miles of which would be over territory never before glimpsed-by man. The Polar Star was, carrying- an adequate reserve of fuel, and the plane’s average speed, it . was estimated, would enable the whole distance to be covered in approximately twenty hours. Mr Ellsworth and his companion are as well equipped as experience could make them for such an eventuality as an emergency landing, and the laying of depots, one of which they will attempt to reach if they are forced down, was part of the leader’s carefully prepared plan.: The hazards of a foot journey in -that. forbidding territory _do not, however, require to be emphasised, and it is preferable to think in the mean- ■„ time that the airmen have reached their objective, but are unable to acquaint their base with the fact. It is to be hoped that-the signals picked np by H.M.S. Dunedin and the Monowai were from , the Polar Star, .although there seems a likelihood that they originated from the-Wyatt Earp itself. At the moment all is uncertainty, but that uncertainty .definitely need not immediately give way to despair. Misfortune has. continually dogged Mr Ellsworth in his Antarctic ventures, yet, ia spite of disquieting appearances, it may, be premature to assume that his luck has not changed. ,