HEALTH SERVICE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 134, 9 June 1938, Page 21

HEALTH SERVICE.

WORK IN DOMINION.

ATTITUDE OF DOCTORS.

COMMENT BY MIHTISTER. (T»y Ti'lojirnpli.—Own Correspondeiit.) OISBORNE, this day. Tlio sooininp: reluctance on the part of medical moil both in Now Zealand or from overseas to serve in the Health Department was mentioned l>y the Hon. P. l'raspr. Minister of Health, during tin course of his present East Coast tour. Mr. Fraser was replying to a complaint from a school committee that its school had not been visited by a doctor since it was opened in 1933, and the Minister said he hoped the time would not be far distant when every school would be visited by a nurse and a doctor at least four times each year. Mr. Fraser added that while a private member of the House he had been under the impression that every school was visited each year, but since becoming Minister he had found that the number of doctors was inadequate. The (iovernment had advertised in Australia and England for medical men to serve in the Department or in the mental hospitals of the Dominion, but young practitioners seemed to be leaning towards surgery, and, in consequence, preventive medicine was beipg neglected. Mr. Fraser said that Dr. He reus, of the medical faculty at the Otago University, Dr. M. IT. Watt. DirectorGeneral of Health, and Dr. (irav, director of- mental hospitals, had been approached with a view to offering special inducement to doctors to enter the (iovernnient service. The Government social security scheme, when .brought forward, would probably make a full medical service much easier.