"NOT WORKABLE"

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 229, 27 September 1941, Page 6

"NOT WORKABLE"

MEDICAL SCHEME

A DOCTOR GIVES REASONS

A detailed statement oft reasons why the medical profession so strongly contends that the Social Security Amendment Bill will not provide an adequate health service was given last night by Dr. Stuart B. Mackay at a crowded meeting in Takapuna.

I The first reason, Dr. Mackay said was that the Government's scheme did not offer the prospect of any changes calculated to build up the standard of health or to reduce the incidence of disease. New Zealand in its public health ac **yApe Si As instances, the tuber'SßSS& Problem was neglected and at 2^ er T a /f h £ u,d have been elimin Tne Department of Health chiefly through inadequate financial hJEP? 1 "* J? ad fa / led to grow with «?e times, and was inadequate to perform its existing functions. Yet it was now -proposed that the Department should undertake a severe administrative burden m trying to make an ill-considered scheme work. *

Secondly, the Government's scheme did not provide a specialist or consultant service, or take into account the necessity for special methods of diagnosis and treatment. It was riot enough to say that these were available in the public hospitals, which were already overcrowded. These services should be available in the homes when needed.

"Slipshod Service" The scheme placed a premium on slipshod service. If it came into force the doctor would be called to attend simple ailments, because to call him would cost nothing, and because only he could prescribe the remedies which the patient would desire to obtain free at the chemist's. In consequence, the doctor might easily find himself with 30 or more visits a day, and similar numbers of people waiting in his rooms. Howcould he hope" to give any of them r. proper examination? Moreover, the neurotics, and the chronic invalids would tend to go from one doctor to another, wasting their time and the country's money, to the exclusion of those who were really ill. This was the experience in other countries.

Further, said Dr. Mackay, the scheme was not workable at present because there were insufficient doctors. In the Auckland metropolitan area,- with 217,300 people, it was estimated there were only 53 practitioners, of whom eight were elderly and unable to do a full day's work and 18 were young men eligible for military service. Illness was in some degree seasonal, and it was probable that at busy times a doctor would be asked for up to 60 attendances daily. A practitioner who had no other duties or responsibilities could by working eight hours daily for six days give adequate attention to 60 patients daily, but he had also to give anaesthetics, attend obstetric cases, give pre-natal and postnatal treatments, do minor surgical operations, examine military recruits and carry out many other duties outside the scope of general practitioner service. Forced to Refuse Some Calls "It must be evident to the most simple person," said Dr. Mackay, "that it is not possible for the practitioners available in the Auckland area to answer all the calls that will be made on them- In times of much sickness they may; not be able to attend more than halt of them. Under the present conditions it is difficult to get a doctor urgently. The Government's proposals will aggravate that. v "The enormous volume of work and the necessity for economy and time and travelling expenses will mean that a doctor will have to refuse to attend patients who are not in his immediate neighbourhood. People accustomed-to call a doctor from another suburb will find that he will be forced to give up attending them. People in outside suburban areas where there is no doctor will find it very difficult to get a doctor to visit them."