A NIGHTMARE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 244, 15 October 1932, Page 9

A NIGHTMARE

HUGE HOSPITAL DEBTS SYDNEY’S AMAZING FIGURES There is no system of financing the hospitals of New South Wales equal to that operating in New Zealand. For years past the great hospitals of the State, most of them in Sydney, have had to depend on voluntary contributions, subsidised by the Government, and with a falling off of gifts they have drifted into a sorry plight which even the State lottery has not relieved. However, it is quite clear now that the hospitals, during the Lang regime, did not receive the total proceeds of the lotteries, and the announcements by the Stevens Government that this will be rectified has been welcomed. It is the intention of the present, Government to so amend tho legislation that it will be impossible in the future to deflect the huge profits which the lottery office is making. People are wondering whether the. lottery will prove the long-sought bulwark to give the hospitals the security they need.

The Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, with an income of £lll,OOO, succeeded in balancing its accounts last year, but at a cost of closing down 200 badlynccded beds. Even such drastic curtailments could not do more than prevent the growth of the debt burden. An overdraft of £105,000 and unpaid accounts amounting to between £lO,OOO and £12,000 remain. The expenditure of the Sydney Hospital was £99.425. and far in excess of its income of £88.518, and the balance-sheet tells the sorry tale of £107,727 added to tho accumulated deficiency, to bring up the grand total of £124,8i0. An income of £54,000 fell far short of meeting the £57,300 outgoings of the Royal North Shore Hospital, and there again the shortage wont to the debts of the hospital, which now amount to approximately £99,000, made up of £54,000 on the maintenance account, £32,000 on the nurses’ home, and £13,000 in unpaid accounts. A shortage of £4ll was shown by the Royal South Sydney Hospital, where the expenditure of £16,641 was comparatively small. An unofficial estimate of the debts of the metropolitan hospitals is in excess of £350,000, and it is admitted that even this amount is probably less than the full amount. Against this stands the lottery profit for its first year of operation—£Bo3,ooo. n dazzling amount —until it is remembered that with its distribution Government assistance to the hospitals, which last year amounted to £514.000, will in all probability cease. It is felt in many quarters that tho economic features of public, hospital finance demand a bet' tor system than that which is offered by the lotterv. It is not regarded as likely that the people will go on investing in large numbers in the hope of getting rich quickly. Perhaps sonic system of compulsory insurance would be bettor. Anyhow, the Government seems determined to give the lottery flthorough trial.