PAYING WARDS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 17009, 16 April 1926, Page 5

PAYING WARDS.

HOSPITAL TREATMENT FOR ALL. Lieut.-Commander J. M. Ken worthy. R.N., M.P.. writes in the Daily Mail:—Some of our large hospitals in London and the provinces, have catered for paving patients for some time, and the practice is extending. Owing to the heavy fees charged in nursing homes and for medical attention in serious cases of illness, especially where operations are involved," many middle-class families are beginning to turn more arid more to tile hospitals for assictan.ee. If this new social custom spreads, the hospitals will benefit by a steady source of income, and much of their work among the poor would bo relieved oi' hampering difficulties owing to the lack of finance, which at present affects nearly every one of them. The medical fraternity arc demanding to a far greater extent than formerly that patients should lie removed to nursing horpes instead of being treated in their own houses. This may be in accordance with modern medical practice, but, is a heavy drain on the average small professional or business man. On the oilier hand, excellent hospital treatment can be obtained for moderate sums. Certain of the hospitals have an arrangement, which tliev are developing, by which families can pay a sum oi round about two guineas annually, in return for which hospital treatment- is given in surgical cases or cases of sickness. For a not exorbitant additional fee separate'wards are provided. The hospitals which are normally overcrowded, especially those in the poorer districts, do not enter into this arrangement, as it- might mean hardship to the very poor who can afford no fees at all. But there are many hospitals which welcome this arrangement, and it certainly deserves'support and development. In this, as in many other walks of life, modern developments, especially since the war, have obliterated the toolings of false pride which prevented ad but the poorest classes from taking advantage of what are, after all, public institutions. The more the hospitals are supported by those who can afford to pay for treatment, the better for all concerned.