Infant Health Inquiry B.M.A. Support For Plunket Society View

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28936, 2 July 1959, Page 12

Infant Health Inquiry B.M.A. Support For Plunket Society View

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, July 1. The New Zealand branch of the British Medical Association today supported the Plunket Society and opposed Health Department views, in its submissions to the committee on pre-school health services. The president of the B.M.A. Dr. J. F. Landreth, of Christchurch, advocated greater activity by private practitioners and by voluntary organisations in the health

care of children. He said the B.M.A. believed the family doctor-general practitioner should be placed in full charge of the sick child. He would have the patient brought to him by the parent who might be prompted by the Plunket nurse, schoolteacher, school medical officer or other agency.

Every family should have Its own family doctor who would provide a permanent long-term co-ordinating factor, he said.

Dr. Landreth said the B.M.A. was strongly opposed to any system which led to reference directly to public hospital or specialised clinic by a schoolteacher, a nurse or a school medical officer. There should be no first instance reference to other than the family doctor.

Regarding preventive services for the well child, the B.M.A. believed that a small proportion of pre-school children were being examined regularly, and that many who were examined were seen by medical officers who were not actively engaged in clinical medicine.

Plunket nurses did not attend in the Maori home, and in some cases, all-purpose Health Department nurses were attempting pre-school preventive work along with their other duties. The B.M.A.’s recommendation to rectify these difficulties was that the Plunket Society's role should be enlarged to include full administrative responsibility for the preventive care of the pre-school child, European and Maori, with the co-operation of the medical profession for provision of necessary examinations.

Co-ordination The role of the Health Department should be that of a co-ordinating body. It should stimulate the hospital boards in making available specialist clinics, both diagnostic and remedial, which could not be provided by private medical practitioners. “Preventive services should be

made subject always to the consent of the parent, and ‘call-ups' for routine examinations should be in the form of reminders, rather than instructions,” said Dr. Landreth. “We believe the Plunket Society is deeply embedded in the social life and affections of the community, that it performs an important and indispensable role and that it does the work better than other organisations could do it,” he said. But he recommended a greater degree of doctor participation in Plunket and other clinics which gave advice to the parent.

Listing the health needs ot babies, Dr. Landreth said the B.M.A. believed that Plunket clinics for the regular attendance of the mother with her children, from birth to five years, would provide the best contribution towards good physical and mental health.

He considered all Health Department clinics should be handed over to appropriate hospital boards to be supervised by the heads of the pediatric departments. Karitane hospitals played an extremely important part in the hospital services available to children, and maintained an surpassed standard of care for premature infants, while Karitane nurses filled a useful community service which should be extended. Plunket nurses were generally the only nurses available with specialised pediatric training and they were invaluable to the community. A professional chair of child health should be established now —the impact on child health would be vital. The matter was earnestly recommended for consideration. Dr. Landreth said the B.M.A also recommended the establishment of a statutory committee to give advice on child welfare to the Government