TUAPEKA HOSPITAL COMMITTEE

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 179, 13 July 1871, Page 5

TUAPEKA HOSPITAL COMMITTEE

A special meeting of the Tnapeka Hospital Managing Committee was held at the Commercial Hotel on Tuesday evening to consider the action of the Government in reducing the subsidy from £2 for £1 to £1 10.- £1, and to devise means, if possible, to carry on the institution. Mr. Bastings occupied the chair. It appeared tliat now the subsidy is reduced the expenditure will be some £600 in excess of the income, so that retrenchment in some shape is necessary if the institution is to be kept afloat. It was suggested to send all chronic cases to the Government Hospital in Dunedin, seeing that the Committee were no longer in a position to accommodate them, and after a long and animated discussion Mr. M'Beath moved and Mr. Harrop seconded, " That owing to the action of the Provincial Council in reducing the subsidy ti> the Hospital, the Committee are unable to maintain so many patients as hitherto, and that therefore the Surgeon be instructed to give notice to patients suffering from long standing disease that they would be required to leave the institution, and that the Committee furnish them with the means to resell Dunedin." Carried. It was regretted that the Committee were thus compelled to force cruelty upon the public, but there was no alternative. Mr. Simpson moved and Mr. M'Kimmie seconded, "That the Resident Surgeon be instructed to report to this Committee the proportion of chronic cases, or those which could have been sent to Dunedin, during the last three years ; that he also be instructed to state whether the services of any of the employees of. the institution could be dispensed with." Carried. The meeting adjourne^ until Friday the 14th, (to-morrow.)