HOSPITAL PATIENTS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 112, 3 July 1911, Page 6

HOSPITAL PATIENTS.

QUESTION OF CLASS DISTINCTION. The paper read at the morning .session by Mr. Mackay on the subject of hospital finance was discussed on' Thursday by delegates attending the' Hospitals Conference at Wellington. A." good deal of discussion took place as vo the methods of deciding whether an applicant for treatment ;t a hospital should be admitted or not. Mr Kirk (Wellington) said tho;.custoni boro was for t-ho board to issue the permission after dho investigation ; and ho also said that the principle was adopted that those who could pay for outside medical treatment wore not eligible for admission. •' In this case Mr Kirk was at variance with the Dunedin delegates, and Mr Bellringer (Taranaki) strongly condemned the class distinction which Wellington’s policy would engender. The hospitals were supported by the rates, and every member of the community should be able to bo treated in them. Called upon for an opinion, Dr Valiutino said that hospitals, in the first instance, were established for those people who were not in'a position. to pay. But a hospital could not refuse to admit, if there was room, patients who wore in a position to Vay for outside treatment. (Hear, hear.) What he could not uriderjstand, however, was that patients who' were ratepayers should object to nay the hospital maintenance iocs. A good many patients took up the attitude that the payment of hospital rates entitled them to free treatment. No action was--taken.