HOSPITAL UPKEEP

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 98, 28 April 1939, Page 8

HOSPITAL UPKEEP

WHAT IT COSTS WANGANUI EXPENDITURE OF NEARLY EIGHTY THOUSAND THE MAINTENANCE BILL. Nearly £BO,OOO, is required annually to maintain the Wanganui, Taihape and Raetihi hospitals and the various institutions and kindred activities associated with them. The Wanganui Hospital requires £47,200 for maintenance, Taihape £4BOO, Raetihi £4200, the Jessie Hope Gibbons Maternity Home £2850, the Jubilee Home £3BOO, district nursing £1370, charitable aid £3500, and administration £3OOO.

The board looks to local bodies to find £29,364 of the money required for maintenance and to the Government for a subsidy of £28,000. This year it is estimated that patients’ fees will produce £15,000, that £2500 will come from Jubilee Home inmates, £llOO from endowment rents. Capital expenditure is usually made possible by borrowing money. Biggest Item is Wages. Salaries and wages is by far the biggest item the board has to provide for. The Wanganui Hospital alone required £22,563 out of a total maintenance expenditure last year oi £43,410. During the past year the domesticstaffs of all the institutions were brought under an award providing for wages, in some instances, very much in excess of the rates previously paid. The full impact of this increase was not felt in the year just closed by reason of the fact that the new rates were in operation from September 1 only. This year the board will require to make provision for a full year at the higher rates. It is interesting to note that the board is now bound by awards in respect of the following employees:—| Clerical workers, dispensary staff, domestic staff (male and female), lorry driver, firemen and stokers, carpenters, plumber, electrician, bricklayer, gardeners, and general labourers. With the introduction of a 40-hour week for most employees and a hour week for domestics, an increase in personnel was inevitable and this factor, together with the increased wages scale under various awards, is mainly responsible for the increased expenditure under this item. The nursing staffs are now paid in accordance with the scale adopted last year. Wanganui District. The Wanganui Hospital district comprises the city of Wanganui, the counties of Rangitikei, Wanganui, Waitotara and Waimarino, and the boroughs and town districts within those counties. By far the greatest share of the cost of the hospital is borne by the largest county, Rangitikei, one of the largest in the Dominion. It is being asked to find £13,546 this year. Wanganui city ranks next, with a population several times greater. Its share of the cost of the hospital this year is estimated to reach £9406. The Wanganui County is being asked to find £3547, Waitotara £3288 and Waimarino £1698. Marton, as the major town district, is looked to for £1291. Taihape’s share is £645. Levies on Local Bodies. Hospitals are financed under a scheme which empowers them to levy local bodies for the amount required over and above the Government subsidy, patients’ fees and other similar revenue. The board is comprised of members sent there to represent the contributing local bodies. On the Wanganui board the chairman (Mr. W. E. Broderick) represents the Wanganui County, Mr. R. Farley the Waitotara County, Messrs. A. J. B. Sicely, A. S. Coleman, D. D. Simpson and D. G. Gordon the Rangitikei County and Mrs. D. M. Robertson, Mrs. E. M. Scott, W. J. Rogers and H. Lawrence the city of Wanganui, and Mr. J. A. Morton the Waimarino County. Mr. T. C. Kincaid, of Taihape, represents the respective boroughs and town districts. Will System Be Changed? Some administrators of local body finance are of opinion that when the Social Security Act becomes fully operative the system of hospital finance will have to undergo material changes. It has long been open to criticism by rural local bodies, who use the argument that their residents make little use of the hospital by camparison with the city, and yet the major portion of the cost of upkeep falls on rural land. Will the Social Security Act, with its as yet unknown ramifications, automatically bring about hospital taxation based on a population tax rather than on rates levied on land? This question is shaping itself in the minds of many people to-day, who have seen weaknesses in methods of the past.