NO ACTION.

Waikato Times, Volume 104, Issue 17584, 13 December 1928, Page 6

NO ACTION.

X-RAY FOR TE AROHA.

GOVERNMENT WILL NOT HELP.

WAIKATO BOARD’S DECISION

In view of the Director-General of Hospitals intimating that the Government will not subsidise money raised for the purpose of acquiring a portable X-ray plant for the Te Aroha district, the Waikato Hospital Board today decided to take no action in the matter.

The department’s letter to the board stated that apart from the fact that the proposed X-ray plant would not be used in a hospital under the control of the Waikato Board, there was, in the Director-General’s opinion, no necessity for such a plant in Tp Aroha or, for that matter, in any of the hospitals in the district outside Hamilton. The efficient service of an X-ray plant required very special knowledge, and he thought the Medical Superintendent, Dr. Gower, would agree with him as 4o the necessity of concentrating all the X-ray work of the district at the Hamilton Hospital.

NON-PAYMENT OF FEES. PROSPECTS OP RELIEF. The non-payment for the treatment of native patients in public hospitals has been a vexed question .with the Waikato Hospital Board for a. long time, in view of the large native population in the board’s district. Some time ago the board suggested to the Native Minister that the Government should set aside a portion of the grants recommended by the confiscated Native Lands Commission for the hospital treatment and relief of Maoris.

In reply, the Minister to-day stated that while the Government could not arrogate to itself the power of distribution of any fund it may grant to the natives, it could, and would, suggest to, the board administering the fund thp advisability of making provision fbr the cost of hospital treatment and relief granted J:o natives entitled to participate in the benefits of the fund.