HOSPITAL UPKEEP

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19866, 14 June 1927, Page 6

HOSPITAL UPKEEP

COUNTRY PAYMENTS CITY, IT IS SAID, GETS OFF LIGHTLY A protest against the heavy burden of the hospital levy borne by the country districts in comparison with the towns was made by the Waitotara County Council at its meeting yesterday. The chairman (Mr W. Morrison) said that as a result of a meeting of the counties executive recently a strong deputation would wait on the Minister (the Hon. J. Aj. Young) soon and would make representations in the matter. The Farmers’ Union had also been asked to join in. The chairman said that as far as the County Councils were concerned, they were agreed that their share of the upkeep of tho Wanganui Hospital was far too great in comparison with the city, and every other hospital in New Zealand was in more or less the same position. The chairman said it was costing the Waitotara County in the vicinity of £1 a head of its population and the Wanganui County £5 or £6 a head. The Government had agreed on the principle that the user should pay for tho services, and had put this into operation in the case of the motorist who used the road. He asked why this was not applied to hospital levies. For every patient that went into the Wanganui Hospital from the Waitotara County, the city put in ten. The County Clerk (Mr A. S. Dymock) informed the Council that the Waitotata County’s contributions towards the upkeep of the hospital had risen from £755 18s 2d in 1917 to £1997 for the present year. In 1921 the levy had been £2905 9s lid.