The Waipa Post. SATURDAY, AUGUST 13, 1921. Published on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. THE HOSPITAL PROJECT.

Waipa Post, Volume XX, Issue 1128, 13 August 1921, Page 4

The Waipa Post. SATURDAY, AUGUST 13, 1921. Published on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. THE HOSPITAL PROJECT.

VERY little has been heard during the past month of the movement recently inaugurated for the establishment of a maternity hospital in Te Awamutu. though there is every reason to believe that silence does not indicate the abandonment of the project. Those who have troubled to watch the real progress of the movement have discovered two things: that the appeal for voluntary contributions was not wholly successful, and that the promoters have advanced official , negotiations a stage further. The appeal did not meet with the anticipated response—many who had been counted prospective subscribers were missing from the completed lists. In the back districts —amongst the dairying communities, in fact—the making of the call for funds has had to be deferred until the season is more opportune. Generally, the need of the institution has been fully recognised .though opinions have differed as to the methods of moneyraising and control in the future. It has been made plain during the whole of the proceedings that the future of the institution was uncertain uhtil the Government has carried into effect the promised revision of hospitals legislation. There is the prospect of proper legal status being given to approved maternity hospitals; it been suggested, by one who is well versed in Government procedure that power will be given for the creation of maternity districts irrespective of ! the areas which have already been made operative for hospitals control. This appears an excellent solution of a real problem. It seldom happens that provision for mdternity -treat- ' ment is made by fhe hospital boards, and there needs to. be either an enlargement of the boards’ responsibilities to take up the maternity branch of hospitals control, or the way made clear for lesser or subsidiary boards to undertake the work. Private enterprise may have been successful up to ! a’' certain degree, but the recentlyannounced statistics have been sufficiently alarming to show the need of an extension of the system which private enterprise has already provided. How best to supplement the work of the hospital boards and the nurses in private practice is a problem for Parliament to consider; but it seems an excellent suggestion that maternity districts should be created regardless of the present hospital areas. Something of national concern has to! be done, but so far as affects this district it is well to work steadily ahead in the assumption that proper legal status will be provided. The need of an institution here is admittedly urgent —a maternity hospital should be established at the earliest possible moment. It will, therefore, be well to conclude preliminaries of finance and plans by the time the way opens for the future control. Delay is not helpful—it 1 is imposing suffering and hardship in many directions. A hospital has a sentimental as well as a material value; its worth is not counted in money but in the alleviation of human suffering. The promoters and supporters of the present movement are doing good service,-and it may be hoped that the departmental negotiations now in progress will end with the desired result, and that the district will make a worthy response when finance is not such a barrier, to a willingness to subscribe. The hospital and all that it means are well worth the effort and the subscription.