QUESTION OF COST.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 August 1925, Page 7

QUESTION OF COST.

INFANTILE PARALYSIS CASES. MAINTENANCE IN HOSPITAL. A question as to whether the Taranaki Hospital Board should be called on to support in its hospital free of charge under its reciprocity agreement, infantile paralysis eases from, outside districts came before the board yesterday, and was referred to a special committee for a report. The chairman (Mr. M. Fraser) said the question was of public importance. In it there were now factors with which the board had not had to deal before. The Taranaki board had seven infantile paralysis cases in the hospital receiving treatment, and some of them came from outside districts, with some of the boards of which there was a reciprocal agreement in force under which none of the boards charged the others for the support of the other boards’ patients Infantile paralysis cases, however, were not on all fours with ordinary cases. The treatment took a very long time, and he thought it unfair that the Taranaki board should be required to pay for outside patients for such a length of time.

The further question had arisen that these patients from outside districts had to be sent to Rotorua for technical treatment. What, in the opinion of the board, should be done, Mr. Fraser asked. Of course, the board would have to consult the parents or guardians of the children patients before they could be sent away and he knew there were eases in which the parents would not be able to pay for their children at Rotorua. The board would be under big expense in sending the patients to Rotorua and in maintaining them there. In his opinion a special committee should be set up Io go into the whole question of the responsibility of other boards and to advise what action should be taken. The other boards would have to be consulted. The question was not one to deal with hastily.

The medical superintendent (Dr. E. A. Walker), in a letter to the board, recommended that seven infantile paralysis cases in the hospital should be sent to Rotorua.

Mr. E. R. C. Gilmour, referring to the chairman’s statement that two Stratford patients were concerned, said he was sure the Stratford board, if the matter were placed before it, would do justice to the Taranaki board. The chairman: I think it will.

Mr. S. Vickers said that he was sure that if the question was put to the hospital boards they would see the justice of the board’s attitude. He took it that the patients had been sent to the New Plymouth hospital to get special treatment, and having given them that treatment the board could not do any more. If the patients had to be sent to Rotorua, their own boards should pay for them.

The Rev. R. B. Gosnell seconded the chairman’s motion that a committee be set up.

Mr. T. H. Sinclair said he was quite in sympathy with the suggestion of setting up a committee -to go into the question, but at the same time they must consider the humanitarian side. If the patients could be treated better at Rotorua, the board should send them there. The outside boards, however, should be asked to consider their responsibilities. The chairman and Messrs. E. R. Q. Gilmour, D. Morgan, J. S. S. Medley, and the Rev. Gosnell were appointed as the committee.