RULES DRAWN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 126, 31 May 1939, Page 12

RULES DRAWN.

MATERNITY BENEFITS.

'REASONABLE ARRANGEMENTS' DOCTOR AND PATIENTS. Persons availing themselves of the maternity benefits provided under the Social Security Act have to observe certain rules laid down by the Health Department, which administers this portion of the legislation. Instructions headed, "Duties of Patients." have been prepared, and these lay down specific times, except in the case of emergency, a doctor may be called to a patient's home. Patients are informed that unreasonable demands must not he made upon a doctor's professional services. For instance, it is provided that a patient i> not to summon a doctor between the hours of 0 p.m. and S a.m. I'.xcept in a case of urgency the doctor must not be asked to pay a vNit on any Saturday afternoon, nor on any Sunday or public holiday. Where a parent requiring medical advice or treatment is prevented by her condition of health from attending the doctor, she has the further duty of notifying him as soon as possible, and not l<licr, where the circumstances of the ease permit, than 10 a.m. of the day she requires to be visited. The patient is required to attend the doctor at such time and place as the doctor has undertaken to be in attendance. A medical practitioner said to-day that patients were not to impose upon the doctor, hut that the whole basis of the arrangement between patient and doctor should be as reasonable as possible- Exception was made to this rule when the patient's health was such that she could not attend at the doctor", urgcry.

Proof of a patient's eligibility receive the ncitei nii. v benefit i- the production of tile patient's certificate of registration under the Social Security Act. After that simple details only have to be supplied of the actual period concerned. The instructions issued say that if any woman wilfully and unreasonably fails to comply with any of the obligations imposed on her by the list of duties, there may, at the suit of the medical officer of health, be recovered from her or from any person liable for her debts, an amount not exceeding the sum paid out of the Social Security Fund in respect to any maternity benefits provided for her.