HOSPITAL BENEFITS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 90, 18 April 1939, Page 8

HOSPITAL BENEFITS.

The man in the street who is steadilypaying his shilling in the pound for social security and for medical benefits which he does not get will not derive much satisfaction from the Health Department's latest circular to hospital boards asking them to make temporary arrangements with their honorary staffs or with those receiving small honoraria for a continuation of their services. June 1 is suggested as the date at which the hospital benefits will be made available, but no information is given to the boards concerned as to what payments will be made to them in the meantime, or upon what basis they should negotiate. It would almost seem that the Government is attempting to make use of the hospital boards to force the doctors into the scheme by a series of small tentative arrangements which, added together, may commit a considerable section of the B.M.A. The whole position, so far as can be judged, is vague and indeterminate. The general public, which is now paying the piper, knows nothing of the course of the negotiations. The terms which the profession was asked to accept, the rate of payment, the hours and conditions of work, the rights and privileges, if any, of the genera* practitioner or the specialist, are veiled in secrecy. Why?