The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 1938. THE GOVERNMENT'S BLUNDER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 98, 28 April 1938, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 1938. THE GOVERNMENT'S BLUNDER.

For the cause that iack» asttittinrm, For the wrong that need* resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

Every man knows that if ho lives on he will one day be old, but usually he hopes that he will never be seriously ill. Hence it is natural that, so far, more interest has been taken in the Government's superannuation proposals than in its proposals for health insurance. But, after the evidence given yesterday to the Select Committee, the public must think very seriously about the "general practitioner service," for it appears that the body of men and women without whose willing co-operation there can be no such service is thoroughly hostile to it. On this point the evidence of the Dominion president of the 8.M.A., Dr. J. P. S. Jamieson, was : uncompromising and unqualified. "We see in the projected universal general practitioner scheme," lie said, "a mistaken method of approach to the problem of raising the standard of health of the community; no appreciable advantage In the treatment of disease over what we possess at present; unnecessary interference with and discouragement of individual initiative and enterprise; State domination over people's freedom and professional liberty; and deterioration of the standard of medical work." No inexpert or partisan critic could make a statement much more devastating than this. The 8.M.A., of which over 90 per cent of all doctors are members, says, in effect, not merely that it dislikes a State medical service of the kind proposed, but that such a service will be futile and even harmful. It is clear from Dr. Jamieson's evidence that this attitude of the medical profession is not new, that the Government was aware of it last year, and that as recently as last February it was informed that the profession "could not promise the willing support and co-operation which the Government would desire " With these facts revealed, it is simply astounding that the Government has brought the scheme forward. How can it have any confidence in the scheme, or expect the public to have confidence, in the light of the B.M.A.'s utterly condemnatory verdict ? How, now that the verdict is public, does the Government propose to proceed? This latest development, and all that it implies, will be deeply disturbing to those who appreciate the need for action of every kind to improve the health of the Dominion's people. That there is much room for improvement in the health service cannot be doubted; the B.M.A. has admitted it, and has made both general and specific suggestions for its improvement. But now, unless the Government is courageous enough to admit its mistake, the great question of the health of the community will stand in danger of being made a bone of political contention, the issue of which will be either inconclusive or a barren "victory," leaving the health service unchanged and the movement for its improvement retarded. The Government should not take the responsibility of risking such a happening. By its actions now, on this issue, it will show whether it is amenable to sound advice, whether it wishes to govern for the people, or whether it is so hagridden by Socialist theory that it must ignore the voice of experience and attempt tp impose an unsound system on the people.