HOSPITAL MATTERS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 68, Issue 5942, 12 May 1944, Page 4

HOSPITAL MATTERS

Sir, —I have noted the letters of G. S. Clarke and “Pro Bono Publico,” and their queries' re my attitude to decentralisation.

At the outset I want to say that decentralisation, in respect to hospitals, has very wide implications, but appears to be very loosely talked of by many people to-day. I think that both correspondents would agree that the first and last consideration should be the welfare of the sick and injured, and that they should have the best in hospital treatment.

As “Pro Bono Publico” prefers anonymity to coining into the open, J have no means of judging his qualifications to analyse any considered opinion, or whether in adopting the nom de plume he does, he is truly public spirited, or merely in a desire to see a hospital established at Te Awamutu. Mr Clarke I know is full of public spirit, and has given his time and energy to serve the public in many ways, but I know that like myself he can only have a very superficial knowledge of hospital systems. I therefore hold to the opinion that the question of the general de-central-isation of the Waikato Hospital should be decided by experts. However, from the superficial knowledge I have gained, I am firmly cf opinion that no hospital should be allowed to become large enough to be unwieldly. Therefore one way of preventing this happening at Waikato may be by the establishment of cheap hospitals in the various centres, to deal solely with the simpler types of case, and thus ensure that duplication of the many necessary and costly appur-

tenances at the main hospital will not be necessary for many years to come. Consequently I am willing to support a hospital of this nature at Te Awamutu, in spite of the extra cost that may be involved. During my term on the Board I have endeavoured, in the interests of the taxpayers, and the ratepayers in particular, to keep costs within reasonable bounds, and have incurred the odium of some of the members in consequence, notably those from Rotorua. However, I have found myself, like Canute and the tide, and have seen so much public money heedlessly squandered in the past few years, that I have come to the conclusion that some extra thousands at Te Awamutu will only be as a drop in the bucket. If Mr Clarke and “Pro Bono Publico” are prepared to come down with their scheme of de-centralisation, so airily referred to, I will be quite willing to give them my opinion on it, provided P.B.P. has the pluck to give it over his own name. In reply to “Mother of Five,” if I do have the misfortune to break my leg, I will certainly go to the Waikato Hospital for treatment, where I can have the benefits of a thorough X-Ray examination by a skilled radiologist. If mother has to go through the same experience again, I would advise her to consider if it would not be better to put up with the inconvenience of a few trips to Hamilton, than to risk having to watch father limping round for the rest of his life, and be thankful that she is not doing it now.—l am, etc., S. C. MACKY.