HOSPITAL CONTROL.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 October 1931, Page 6

HOSPITAL CONTROL.

From time to time amendments io the existing system of hospital control are suggested. During the last few years the large growth in -hospital expenditure has caused a good deal of searching of heart among the ratepayers who are called upon to find the necessary funds. Suggestions have varied but may be divided roughly between those which support the present system of full control by elected boards and those which consider control by medical experts would be wiser and more economical. There is also the vexed question of whether “private” wards should be established at the public hospitals in which patients could be treated by their personal medical attendant without reference to ordinary hospital treatment, and where they could receive more luxurious accommodation and diet by paying additional charges. Supporters of this suggestion see in it a way to ease the burden of the ratepayer, of overcoming the real hardship in many cases of a patient losing the services of a personal medical attendant because he is obliged to enter a public hospital, and of increasing the use of special apparatus and appliances, which only a fairly large hospital can provide. .As it is economically sound to bring about recovery as quickly as possible, they maintain that in. this direction, also the institution of 'private wards would relieve the strain upon public funds. On the other hand, there are doubts whether private wards with the staffing and upkeep required would be a paying investment, and above all whether differentiation between patients of different financial resources would lead to “class” difficulties and discontent. So far public opinion is in favour of the control of hospitals by elective boards. It has recently received public support from Dr. T. H. A. Valintine, who recently retired from the position of Director-General of Public Health. For many years he was the official advker and supervisor of hospital boards, and though he admits the system has its weaknesses and that , more concentration might eliminate undue expense,, it is satisfactory to have it on the authority of an expert that on the whole elective control is proving as wise as any that has yet been devised.