The Timaru Herald WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 1907. HOSPITAL MATTERS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XC, Issue 13316, 19 June 1907, Page 4

The Timaru Herald WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 1907. HOSPITAL MATTERS.

l)r Yalintiue covered a good deal of ground in his address to the South Canterbury 1 Hospital Hoard yesterday, but the' interview docs not appear to have been -productive 1 of much - practical result beyond •Establishing the -gratifying fact that the' Board is administering the affairs -which crime wit-liin its province- .as Ave-ll as it is possible for-a local authority to administer them. At the outlet we sho ukt like to confess to a feeling of relief that the suggestion to 'establish cottage hospitals in soiiia of the outlying towns is not going to bo carried very far. The suggestion was the result of a little natural irritation at tlie attitude taken up in the past by a few residents in a rather fortunately situated portion of the district, but we are |..glad that that irritation has evidently died away, and that it is not to be allowed to run the Board into an extensive arid expensive system of subsidiary institutions. We have always supported the contention that the right. policy is to' maintain a central hospital on well equipped lines, and the Boards action in this respect secured the approval of the visiting inspector yesterday. Country ratepayers are sometimes inclined to grumble because the money they supply is spent- in Timaru, . but a little reflection should be. enough . to convince them that it is preferable to use a moderate income to the best advantage in this way, rather than to dissipate a larger amount over a number of scattered and inferior institutions. We have l no hesitation, therefore, in saying that the Board! has arrived at- a wise decision iu determining to subsidise ono or two beds in a private hospital at Geraldine in inference to undertaking the erection and maintenance of a cottage hospital. Circumstances have already provided' it with sufficient institutions of a —fortunately enough—ornamental rather than absolutely necessary character, in the infectious diseases hospital. There is, of course, no knowing when the Talbot- hospital may have its accommodation taxed to the utmost, and it affords the community a comfortable sense of confidence to know that if, is 'there against an outbreak _ of scarlet fever, although . other provision would have to be made iu the events of epidemics of any other nature. However, a- hospital cannot be kept standing even idle most of its time for nothing, and it would have been a grave mistake if this part of the Board's outlay had bee.n increased by the provision of a number of cottage hospitals iu localities where their

services would probably not luive been in very irci[ucnli demand. In regard to the general run of hospitals;, wo lmvc a good dcid of sympathy with l)r Valinti»e's complaint against the tendency on the public to liiidvO an undue use of them, but wo realis:' the difficulties which must coilfront anybody who attempts to set up regulations for protecting them against abuse. l,f it were not unsafe to indulge in prophecy, wr. should be inclined to for"ca v L an even wider extension of the scope of hospitals, with the gradual elimination of the private practitioner. Things seem to be. drifting in that direction, unless the (Jovermnent, represented by its 'inspector, and thi' Hospital Hoards combine to reserve the hospitals of the colony practically for the indigent. The tone of l)r Valintine's remarks appears to indicate that tli'.i aiifhoriiiev- in Wellington are setting out 011 a crusude of 'economy, but local bodies in immediate touch with the public of their own districts an* not likely to expose themselves io the 1111impopularity which would inevitably follow close upon the. heels of any Lt.?p which bore the slightest mspicion of :a tendency to deny succour to the suffering. The same difficulty ••tands i;i Iho way of any attempt to cut down I.lie colony's expenditure upon charitable aid. The tendency, as the chairman said, is to take a liberal rather than an illiberal view qf every ca§e in which application is made for relief. The .same tendency has operated in England. with the result, as we heard some time ago, that the inmates of charitable institutions were in many cases living jnoro comfortable lives than the ratepayers who supported them.. There is no reason to suppose tliilk the I-'outh Canterbury Board carries this amiable tendency to excess, but an occasional reminder such as Dr Valintine gave yesterday that the colony's charitable aid bill is getting unwieldy, will serve to stimulate its sense of the duty it owes to the h'fc as well as that to the unlit.