BILL TO RESTORE TO HOSPITAL BOARDS SOME FORMER POWERS

Wanganui Chronicle, 1 November 1950, Page 6

BILL TO RESTORE TO HOSPITAL BOARDS SOME FORMER POWERS

PARLIAMENT BLDGS., Last Night (PA). —Freedom to s.ppoint their own senior officers is restored to hospital boards under the Hospital Amendment Bill, introduced in the House of Representatives today. The appointments involved are those of medical officers, dental officers, full-time architects, matrons, masters, managers, engineers, secretaries and chief engineers. The Bill restores to hospital boards the powers of appointment they possessed before the law was amended in 1948.

An obligation is imposed to give the Minister of Health notice of intention to make these appointments, and consideration must be given to any recommendation he may make. Authority is given for boards to keep separate imprest accounts for the payment of salaries and of emergency and petty expenditure at institutions situated in different places. Boards are authorised to delegate powers to their committees, other than the borrowing of money, the making of by-laws and contracts or the taking of actions. A committee will be subject to any general or special directions of its board, and to its standing orders. The Minister of Health (Mr Watts) said that this followed similar provisions in the Municipal Corporations Act, and placed hospital boards in the same position as other local bodies. Power is given for the making of regulations governing the staff, sanitary appliances and sterilising apparatus in maternity wards in public hospitals. The present law provides for such regulations only for private hospitals. The Deputy-Leader of the Opposition (Mr Nash) asked if the proposal to delegate hospital board powers to committees had originated from the Wellington Hospital Board. The Prime Minister (Mr Holland): It is asked for all over New Zealand. Mr Nash said the proposal meant there would be a lot of committee work of which the public would have no knowledge. There was something to be said for giving maximum publicity to hospital board affairs.

Mr Watts said there was increasing evidence, particularly with large hospital boards, that the boards did not have sufficient power to delegate work to committees. This difficulty had been highlighted in Wellington. He was convinced that, with the proper safeguards provided in the Bill, it was right for boards to have this power.