HOSPITAL BOARD AFFAIRS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24606, 14 May 1941, Page 8

HOSPITAL BOARD AFFAIRS

MR J. W. DOVE'S CANDIDATURE Mr J. W. Dove, a candidate for a seat on the Otago Hospital Board as the representative of the districts of St. Kilda, the Otago Peninsula and Green Island gave an address at the St. Kama Town Hall last night. Mr Dove said that he had been elected a member of the board in 1919. and that, with an interval of six months, he had been a member ever since For the past six years he had been chairman of the board, and for the past four years president of the Hospital Boards' Association of NewZealand. The speaker referred to the difficulty the Otago Board had to labour under in respect to finance, and said that the capital rating of Otago was much lower than in any of the other three centres. Aucklandi for instance, had a capital rating area of a valued £95,000,000, whereas Otago s capital rating area was only £29,000,000, and Otago had to provide a greater service than the other centres. The many institutions controlled by the Otago Board were enumerated, and up to now, said the candidate, the, board had never raised capital by way of loan. That was a very creditable position when they realised the heavy loan money which the other leading hospitals had to pay interest on. They had to remember, however, that under the future operations of the board large sums were involved, and they would have to go to the public for loan money. The speaker gave details of the extensive additions that are to be made to the Dunedin Hospital, and said that £240,000 would be spent on these additions within the next two years, but that that would not complete the whole programme, which would require a considerably larger further amount. Touching on the policy being presented by the Labour Party, Mr Dove 'asked what more could possibly be done by that party compared with what the board had done and was doing. With regard to the home nursing plan, that had been in operation in Dunedin for years, and was being financed by the Hospital Board, and they were preparing for further service under this scheme. The board was making provision for an expenditure of £30,000 for a new infirmary ward, and' it was also making provision for the accommodation of sick or wounded soldiers. Reference was made to a matter which came before the board some months ago regarding the appointment of members of the honorary medical staff without advertising and the method of appointment ] being explained. Mr Dove said that the member of the board who had brought up the complaint at the board meeting had subsequently apologised to him for doing so. Could anything have been fairer than what the board had done in connection with these appointments? asked the speaker, and an emphatic " No " from a member of theaudience came as the answer. Hospital work, concluded Mr Dove, was one of the most humane services anyone could engage in, and he was sure that no one could doubt that the Hospital Board fully realised that and gave its service in the interests of humanity.