RISE IN COSTS OF HOSPITAL

Southland Times, Issue 23650, 27 October 1938, Page 6

RISE IN COSTS OF HOSPITAL

Board’s Experience In Auckland

HIGHER PRICES AND INCREASED WAGES

WIDELY-USED SUPPLIES

DEARER

(Special to The Times)

AUCKLAND, October 26.

With prices of widely-used supplies up by about 40 per cent, and with an advance of 117 per cent, registered in salaries and wages in comparison with conditions in the first half of the 1935 financial year, the rising trend in the cost of living is indicated in the financial statements of the Auckland Hospital Board for the six months before September 30. As a purchaser of large quantities of common household goods and an employer of several distinct types of labour, the board’s experience is regarded as a fair criterion of conditions throughout the community. Rising prices, reduced hours and increased wages are the main reasons advanced for the increase fr&m £lO 5/9 in 1935 to £l6 16/7 in the cost of treating each ,of the patients 'admitted to the institution. In the first six months of 1935, when 6754 patients were treated, payments amounted to £69,486, as com-

pared with 7470 patients at a cost of £125,841 in the corresponding period of this year. COST OF NINE COMMODITIES On the costs side there have been some striking increases in commonlyused utilities and for nine commodities which are purchased in large quantities by the hospital authorities £38,149 is required this year, whereas the same supplies could be obtained for £27,254 in 1935. The advance over these nine articles is calculated at 40 per cent. The following table shows the effect of increased prices a's compared with 1935 for a few main contract lines based on this year’s requirements:—

Considerable differences are shown in the percentage of the increase shown in the salaries paid to different sections of the staff as compared with the rates which ruled in 1935. In the case of domestics the advance is calculated at 214 per cent., while the amounts paid to orderlies and to nurses have in each case advanced by over 100 per cent Salaries for the medical staff have risen by ,77 per cent., while the engineers employed by the board have enjoyed a 23 per cent, increase. The position is illustrated in the following table, which gives the salaries and wages paid (all thousands) for the first six months of each financial year since 1935:—

1935 £ 1938 £ Increase £ Bacon 1,031 1,478 447 Butter 3,039 4,168 1,129 Bread 3,580 4,708 1,128 Coal 6.860 8,380 2,520 Fish 1,502 2,382 880 Fowls 1,273 2,030 757 Meat 4,457 6,342 1,885 Milk 3,031 5,156 2,125 X-Ray Films 2,481 2,505 24 TOTALS 27,254 38,149 10,895

1935 1936 1937 1938 £ £ £ £ Medical 6,112 8,423 8,324 10,810 Nursing 11,654 13,573 16,975 23,527 Orderlies 5,015 8,252 10,899 13,278 Domestics 4,028 6,547 10,612 12,674 Engineers 2,322 2,829 2,589 2,869 TOTALS 29,131 39,624 49,399 63,158