THE HOSPITALS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 74, 18 July 1914, Page 4

THE HOSPITALS.

A strong feeling that the State should take over the hospitals and bear the (whole cost of their maintenance was displayed at Wednesday's sitting of the Municipal Conference, says the Dominion, and proceeds: It is true that the motion to this effect was lost, but the division was a narrow o~e, twentyfive delegates voting for the proposal and twenty-nine against it. The general increase in the hospital levies throughout the dewed with alarm by the contributing bodies for years past, and many of them would doubtless be glad: to es,-. cape their obligations without delay. At the same time it cannot be said that State control of similar institutions, to wit, the mental hospitals, has been an unalloyed success. The burden of hospital expenditure may be a heavy one at present, but it has been demonstrated time and again that it could be considerably lightened did the boards insist on the payment of maintenance charges by those patients who are in a- position to meet them without hardship. The laxity in this respect has in many ca,ses been notorious, and there is no good reason why the ratepayers should be called upon to support patients who are quite able to pay the very modest maintenance rates, but lack the ordinary decent spirit that prevents a man from sponging on Jiis neighbours.