HOSPITAL BOARD FINANCE

Southland Times, Issue 23664, 12 November 1938, Page 6

HOSPITAL BOARD FINANCE

EXTRA £12,600 A YEAR NEEDED RATES MAY BE INCREASED BY 50 PER CENT. Assuming that the Government maintains its present basis of subsidy on maintenance costs, the Southland Hospital Board will have to find an extra £12,600 a year, because of rising costs, according to the report of the special committee which was set up at the conference of local body representatives held in the Southland County Council Chambers on November 3. The report was released for publication yesterday. Because of amending labour awards, the report stated, the increased cost this year would be £4505, which was not provided for in this year s estimates, and this covered part of the year only. The Government would find 50 per cent, of this increase, or £2252. The total extra amount to be found by the board on next year’s estimates under the social security scheme was estimated at £12,600, plus £2252, making a total of £14,852. The total maintenance levied on the local authorities for the year 1938-39 was £29,250. The total additional cost would be £14,852, which indicated that fhe rate on the local authorities would have to be increased by 50 per cent. These costs and estimates covered maintenance only, and no provision had been made for capital expenditure, although the committee had estimated on the additional cost of maintenance for the additional beds. The committee submitted the following finding to keep the costs to the Southland Hospital Board and to the local authorities on the same basis as for the 1938-39 year. The Government under the social security scheme would require to find an additional £14,852 for the 1939-40 year. The board could be reimbursed by the Government as follows:— Payment of 6/- a bed a day for the infirmary £lO,OOO Payment of 6/- a bed a day for Waipiata Sanatorium (present subsidy is 3/6 a bed a day) 1 £3,285 If costs remained on the 1938-39 basis, a contribution of 6/- a day a bed in all the Hospital Board’s institutions would mean that rating would remain constant, and to cover increased costs arising from Labour legislation and increased services, the payment by the Government under the social security scheme would need to be 7/- .a bed a day over all the occupied beds in the Hospital Board’s institutions, with a continuation of the present basis of Government subsidy, which would require to be on a minimum of £1 for £l. LOANS TO BOARDS The committee recommended that to provide for capital expenditure by hospital boards the Government should make advances by way of loans to the respective boards without the necessity of taking a poll of ratepayers, and the ratepayers to be rated each year for the annual charges of the loans so advanced by the Government. Capital expenditure should not be provided for out of revenue accruing from rates. Mr T. Pryde (secretary of the Southland Hospital Board) tabled the Hospital Board Association’s report of September 1938 on the Social Security Act at the conference on November 3. The committee gave close study to this report and dealt extensively with -the figures and costs of the Southland Hospital and the institutions under the control of the Hospital Board. The Hospital Board Association had brought down an estimate of the effect, on hospital board finance of the Social Security Act; but an analysis of the Hospital Board Association’s estimates disclosed the fact that the local bodies’ estimates of costs did not coincide with the estimates submitted by the association. The committee made an analysis of the known costs with a view to ascertaining what effect there would be on the Southland Hospital Board finance to ascertain if any increased revenue would be required by the board, and to bring down recommendations as to where this increased revenue should be derived from.

The Southland Hospital Board had been run on economical lines, in that the hospital had honorary physicians and doctors giving their services at a very low figure. The recovery of fees from pensions was high and the amount levied on the local authorities by way of rates was below the average for New Zealand. The present honorary doctors and physicians cost the board approximately £3575 a year, and the additional cost for their services under the Social Security Act for Invercargill, Gore, Riverton and Queenstown was estimated at £lO,OOO. This was held to be a conservative estimate. The committee did not take into consideration any estimates of increased costs arising out of the new awards. The comimttee dealt with actual figures and costs as submitted by the secretary of the board. PANEL DOCTORS There were several matters on which the committee was not clear as the information is not given clearly in the Social Security Act. One question which arose was that of doctors on the panel. Were they to be paid by the hospital boards or by the Government out of the Social Security Fund if carrying out hospital duties at the request of a patient? The Act did not seem to contain any provision for a payment to hospital boards for their infirmaries. The Southland Hospital Board, last year - , recovered fees amounting to 2/8 a day, and these fees principally accrued from pensions and payments by inmates, but under the Act pensions would be discontinued when the pensioner was receiving medical treatment or was confined in an infirmary. The board’s records showed that half of the inmates of the infirmary were receiving medical attention and the board should be compensated by the Government for these services. The total recovery of fees for the infirmary was £4820 for the year 1938, and this item would disappear altogether under the Social Security Act, in that the Government had not made provision for payment of maintenance to hospital boards for patients in infirm-; aries, and the board would have no; way of recouping itself from the pensions for the cost incurred. The committee consisted of Messrs T. Golden (chairman), W. M. Norman, L. A. Blackmore, W. F. Sturman, T. Pryde and H. C. Gimblett.