HOSPITAL REFORM

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18680, 1 May 1926, Page 14

HOSPITAL REFORM

MINISTER AND B.M.A. "DETERMINED TO FORCE A QUARREL." (special to "the PBISS.") WELLINGTON, April 30. The new Minister for Health seems to have got himself into trouble in consequence of his remarks recently made at Hnntly, and his further statement at Blenheim, and the medical profession is up in arms against him. Referring to the subjeet, Dr. D. Eardley Fenwick, secretary of the New Zealand branch of the British Medical Association, said to-day: "At this stage I am not anxious to say very much, because the executive of the Britieh Medical Association has written to the Minister with a view to endeavouring to remedy the apparent misunderstanding which has occurred through his remarks. "These remarks of the Minister could not have been made at a more unfortunate time. He seems determined to force a quarrel upon us, just at a time when there was every prospect of his Department and the profession getting together in a spirit of helpful co-opera-tion. For years there has been rather a tendency for the Department of Health and the medical profession each to go its own individual way, with little reference to the other. A Helpful Conference. "Partly to remedy this unsatisfactory state of affairs,, the B.M.A. (representing the profession in New Zealand) asked the Department and representatives of the Hospital Boards to . meet their representatives in conference. This meeting took place, and the whole atmosphere was one of co-operation. There was then no misinterpretation of the views of the profession. There was, for instance, no such ridiculous suggestion as that the doctors wanted to get control of the hospitals. Kow the Minister seems determined to quarrel with us and to impute ulterior motives to our desire to co-pperate with his Department. "Intensely Disappointed."

"It is rather a pity that the Minister should have made the kind of remark that he did at Blenheim, when he said that the members of the B.M.A. are angry with him. That is not the kind of remark that is going to help matters. . Our feeling, put briefly, is this: We are intensely disappointed that at a time when we are awaiting with great interest the report from a world-renowned authority on-hos-pital administration, the Minister for Health rushes to tho fore with statements of a kind which, suggest that he has made'up his mind to oppose anything in the nature of reform or alteration in the present system.' He must know that the last .thing that occurred at tho recent conference was. a statement by the Director-General of Health that as soon •as Dr. MacEachern's full report arrived, he (the Director-Gen-eral) would : convene a-meeting representative of the Department, the Hospital Boards; and the B.M.A. —a-confer-ence, he stated, out of ' which nothing but good could result. Surely Mr-Young would have lost nothing by waiting for this conference before making the unfortunate statements he has made. American Systems. ■ "Regarding the remarks of the Minister following, his reading of a letter from Dr. Watt, Deputy-Director-General of the Health Department, I can only say that the British Medical Association will be extremely glad to hear the result of Dr. Watt's observations in regard to American hospitals.,.We do not for one moment desire to adopt in their entirety American systems in NewZealand We' think, however, •tbat.-.as f result of Dr. Watt's observations, m America, and Dr. MacEachern's enquiry into our hospital system in .New Zealand, we can adopt what is good and reject what is not suitable to New Zealand conditions.. .