Co-ordinating Hospital Work Sir.-George Newman certainly had the greater weight
of opinion behind him when he again urged the other day that, instead of ultimately putting all hospitals on the rates and taxes, it is wiser to combine voluntary and municipal hospitals in a co-operative system—" a system of unity.rather.than uniformity." Such a policy corresponds best to what he called " the peculiar English genius - for practical compromise between collectivism and- _individualism." But it does not -mean leaving things exactly . as they are.. It implies developing effective -consultation and -co-operation between the local authorities and representative committees of the voluntary_ hospitals and their medical and surgical staffs. To such consultation the local authorities are now impelled by statute ; but it cannot . take place unless the voluntary hospitals .establish a representative committee. In the areas of three county councils and fourteen county boroughs this has not yet been done.
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