View report page

64
Managers, at a meeting in November, instructed the General Purposes
Committee to consider and report as to the desirability of
erecting a Station at the North-western Hospital.
PAYMENT FOR NON-PAUPER CASES IN HOSPITAL.
The Asylums Board issued a return in May, 1888, of fever
patients admitted to the hospitals, with and without Relieving
Officers' orders, shewing that 40 per cent. of the cases within a
specified time, had been admitted without orders. Thereupon
a ratepayer expressed his intention of appealing, and he did
appeal to the Auditor, to surcharge the cost of the maintenance
of all patients admitted without Relieving Officers' orders.
The Auditor, in due course, had the matter under consideration,
but to avoid the delay involved in the process of getting a
surcharge remitted, in the event of the Auditor making one, the
Clerk to the Managers, under their authority, applied to the Local
Government Board to sanction the expenditure incurred in the
maintenance of such patients, under the power conferred upon
the Board by section 3 of the Local Authorities (Expenses) Act,
1887, which enacts that "Expenses paid by any local authority
whose accounts are subject to audit by a district auditor, shall
not be disallowed by that auditor if they have been sanctioned by
the Local Government Board." The Board sanctioned the
expenditure, with an intimation that it was the intention of the
President to introduce a Bill for the purpose of removing any
doubt as to the legality of expenditure of the character indicated,
should circumstances admit of legislation in the then current
Session. The Managers, recognizing the importance of the step
taken by the Local Government Board, informed the local
authorities of the correspondence, and thereafter no further
difficulty was experienced in regard to the admission of nonpaupers.
The President gave effect to his intention by the
insertion of a clause in the Poor Law Act, 1889, which provides
in a practical if not altogether satisfactory manner, for the
settlement of the question, thus giving effect to the proposal made