Minister's Memorandum On Plunket Society Issue

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29239, 24 June 1960, Page 2

Minister's Memorandum On Plunket Society Issue

WELLINGTON, June 23.

“I consider that any differences of opinion between the Plunket Society and the Department of Health have been largely centred on the expenditure of public funds,” said the Minister of Health (Mr Mason) in a memorandum which, it is believed, has been circulated to members of Parliament. Mr Mason said that in a letter to members of Parliament on May 9, the society made certain representations concerning its role in the health services.. Certain attitudes attributed to the department were expressions of the opinion of the society, and were not necessarily correct. The society referred to its present "critical position,” and he was at a loss to understand what was meant.

The Government had approved subsidies totalling more than £BO,OOO on new Karitane hospital buildings at Auckland and Christchurch, and a £1 for £1 grant, involving some £30,000. would be available towards the cost of reconstruction work at Wellington s Karitane hospital. These capital grants were apart from the annual grant for general purposes, which last year came to nearly £130,000, the £2 for £3 subsidy on donations to the society’s hospitals (nearly £20,000 last year), and the bursary for Plunket nurses in training, which had been recently increased from £3OO to £440 and from which an average of 50 nurses benefited each year. Nursing Services

“The other suggested difference, competition between the department and the society, arises from the efforts of the department to avoid overlapping of nursing by co-ordination of the two services,” said Mr Mason.

(New Zealand Press Association)

“It is wrong to suggest that the department has entered into competition with the society in in-

fant welfare work. The two services have developed side oy side, the department’s concern being particularly with Maori babies and rural areas, and the. society’s with more populated areas.”

Originally, these two services had been geographically far apart, but with their development and the development of the communities they served, they now made contact in many areas.

The Minister added that in his opinion the recommendation of the Consultative Committee on the setting-up of a child health council could be best implemented by establishing an appropriate committee through the Board of Health, as provided by the Health Act. “I am confident,” said the Minister, “that such a committee, on which the Plunket Society would be represented, would be able to express its views with complete independence.” Question In Parliament

Mr Mason was asked in the House of Representatives today to give an undertaking that he would not permit his department to usurp the functions carried out by the Plunket Society in the community in the interests of the health of children.

The questioner, Mr J. K. McAlpine (Opposition, Selwyn), added that a great amount of the work and money needed for this essential service was given ilyThe Minister replied briefly that there was no basis for the suggestion that the Health Department intended in any way to usurp the functions of the Plunket Society.