COST OF HOSPITALS.

Waikato Times, Volume 104, Issue 17485, 20 August 1928, Page 9

COST OF HOSPITALS.

DR. OPINION. TIME TO CALL A HALT. j “The time has certainly come when, in my opinion, a halt, and a very crisp halt, should be called in hospital expenditure,” writes Dr. T. H. A- ValinLine, Director-General of Health, in his annual report. “Might I say that I am very proud of our New Zealand hospitals and the work of the hospital boards controlling them. Without the help of these boards it would have been impossible to build and otherwise develop the hospitals we now have. But there is reason in all things, and, personally, I am appalled at hospital expenditure, actual and proposed, especially in certain districts; but I do not blame the boards entirely for this. If it were possible for members of hospital boards of this Dominion to visit the Old Land —aye, and other countries, including, mark you, the United States of America —they would come hack to this Dominion very pleased and very proud not only of our hospitals, but of our public institutions as a whole. They would think, I ai i sure, that for a population of barely one and a-half million souls we have done not so badly, but extremely well—and all that in about tlie lifetime of some of our aged pioneers.”