N.Z. MEDICAL SERVICES

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25249, 30 July 1947, Page 9

N.Z. MEDICAL SERVICES

| SIR WILLIAM SHAW’S OPINION

reference to social SECURITY ACT

New Zealand doctors had the same high clinical standards as always, and general practitioners would view with consternation the complete cancellation of the medical part of the Social Security Act. This opinion was expressed by Sir William Fletcher Shaw, the eminent obstetrician and gynaecologist, who recently visited New Zealand, in a letter to the British Medical Journal. Replying to a suggestion by the former New Zealand Rhodes Scholar, Dr. A- E. Porritt, that the introduction of the social security system had resulted in a falling-off in the ethical and clinical standards of medical practice. Sir William Shaw said he had found that «uch stories, told in every centre, referred to the same small group of doctors. Every country had its “black sheep,” and he had finally come to the conclusion that New Zealand had a smaller percentage of “black sheep” than there was in Britain. •*I should be surprised if he did not regret having expressed himself so tersely that it allows of his being quoted in a sense which I feel sure, is not his true appraisement of the medical position in New Zealand,” said Sir William Shaw, referring to Dr. Porritt’s reference to the “national medical service” in New Zealand. He added that he spent four months in New Zealand, whereas Dr. Porritt had a shorter visit . ~ Discussing an allegation that the medical service in New Zealand broke down after 6 o’clock and during weekends, Sir William Shaw said that many doctors were in the Armed Forces when the act came into operation. The position was aggravated by the increase in the number of patients, but he believed that it would rectify itself when a number of doctors had returned to the profession. He blamed the “ancient method of hospital administration” for the shortage of doctors in certain branches of the profession. The system, he said, failed to create the necessary posts, and was in no way related to the social security system. The shortage would be rectified as the number of general practitioners increased, and patients had greater freedom in the choice of doctors. ____________ «