IRISH HOSPITALS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 298, 18 December 1933, Page 7

IRISH HOSPITALS

LOSS OF SUBSCRIPTIONS. WRONG SIDE OF THE LEDGER. LONDON, Out. 31. A correspondent of the Times reports that protests are being made by certain hospitals in the Irish Free State that they were better off before the introduction of the Irish sweepstakes than they are to-day. In the case of th e Cork South Infirmary it is stated tluit lor the past two years it, like tiiu other hospitals, has got nothing from the sweepstake funds, as the Government has held up the 1 money. Meantime voluntary contributions hav 0 fallen off until there is little coining in. 1 he position was discussed at a meeting of the committee of the infirmary, when the treasurer said that they owed their bankers £3249. The position at the end of the year would be impossible, as they then would be £5009 to the bad. ■Mr. Greene asked if there was any prospect of the infirmary getting anything from the sweepstake fund. Mr. Desmond ft aid that he had inter- \ iewed the Minister concerned with the sweepstake funds, and the reply he received was that it would be a long time before they got any money out. It was intended to visit the hospitals in the country first. A concise report of their immediate requirements should be dial ted. That, said the treasurer, h c had done on several occasions. The chairman, Canon Murphy, said that their most pressing need was a capital sum to compensate for the loss of subscriptions. The treasurer said that in the old days they had 60 non-paying patients who each cost the hospital £lOO a year. The number of non-paying patients had now increased to .120 men, and a bigger staff was required. Mr. Gamble said that the present inclination was for people to enter the hospital without paying, as they believed that the hospitals had plenty of niojicv.