THE SERVICE OF HEALTH

Taranaki Daily News, 3 May 1930, Page 11

THE SERVICE OF HEALTH

COST TO PUBLIC GROWING

MINISTER REVIEWS POSITION-

CONSTANT NEED FOR ECONOMY.

By Telegraph.—Press Association. Palmerston N., Last Night. The Hon. A. J. Stallworthy to-day opened two new wards of the Palmerston North hospital to provide accommodation for 46 beds, which brings the total of beds to 293, making it the sixth largest general hospital in New Zealand, or nearly 5.4 beds per 1000 of the population, a proportion which is ahead of any district of similar or greater population. Tnc Minis' r referred to the expansion of hospital and allied services in the Dominion. In the comparatively short period of five years from 1924-25 to 1928-29 hospital maintenance had increased from £964,183 to £1,206,190, an increase of 25 per cent. This figure included direct expenditure only on provisions (surgery and dispensary, domestic and establishment), salaries and wages, miscellaneous maintenance, and maintenance of out-patients’ departments, and did not include interest on capital sunk in land, buildings and equipment or-'.-depreciation, which together were estimated to represent an annual figure of about £320,000. In the same period the annual numbers of in-patients under treatment increased from 65,240 to 87.888, an increase of 34.7 per cent. The increase in the number of in-patients as between 192728 and 1928-29 was 8046. Out-patients increased from 39,796 to 73.952 during the five years, and the 1927-28 figure was 71,987.

Despite this apparently extraordinary increase in the number of out-patients it was of interest to note, said the. Minister, that the Dominion had less than one out-patient to one in-patient, whilst in- comparison the United Kingdom had four and a-half to one. Local conditions, and in particular the fact that New Zealand had only a few large centres of population, had, of course, a special bearing on this point. The aggregate duration of the stay of inpatients of general hospitals during the year 1928-29 was no less than 1.653,633 days. Including special hospitals such as infectious diseases hospitals, maternity hospitals, consumptive sanatoria, and the several Health Department institutions, the aggregate stay in hospital was 2,195,895 days, an average of 1.5 hospital days per head of population.

HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATION.

The administration of hospitals —the major function of hospital boards —and hospital maintenance constituted £70,000 of the total expenditure, but there were other important functions to which reference must be made—the administration of indoor and outdoor relief, which in recent years had shown a considerable increase in coot and was probably the meet difficult phase of the board’s work, particularly at the present time. Although indoor relief had not increased'quite so appreciably, being £110,874 in 1928-29 as against £94.756 in 1924-25, the outdoor relief in the same period had increased from £76,190 to £134,864, this being accounted for by the existence of large scale unemployment, which made its appearance in 1926. The total maintenance expenditure of hospital boards and the Health Department’a institutions for the year 192829 was £1,671,295, the corresponding figure for the previous year being £1,593,001. Having regard, however, to the steadily growing popularity of public services, resulting in their utilisation by a wider economic section of the community, and to the development of related services by the department itself, such as dental clinics, native nursjn» and medical serviceo, and assistance to° the Plunket Society’s activities,, it was desirable to view the subject from the aspect of the burden on public funds. Levies on local bodies had increased from £497,272 in 1924-25 to £675,238 in 1928-29, the . estimated amount for the year just closed being £688,728. Subsidies to hospital boards payable from the Consolidated Fund, totalled £546,106 in 1924-25, and £698,105 in 1928-29. Including other expenditure by the department on ita institutions and other related activities previously referred to, the total burden on the public funds liad increased front £1,181,924 in 1924-25 to £1,523,929 in 1928-29, the estimated amount for 192930 being £1,562,248, equivalent to £1 Is 4d per head of the population, aij against 17s 5d six years ago. The estimates for the current year were at present being examined, said Mr. Stall worthy, but he was not in a position to project the amount of the demands to be made. He expressed the hop© that boards would co-operate with the Health Department in drawing their estimates finely ae possible, recognising the constant need for economy.