“Autonomy Inevitable”

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31208, 4 November 1966, Page 1

“Autonomy Inevitable”

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, Nov, 3.

The New Zealand branch of the British Medical Association would inevitably become a completely independent body, said Dr. D. Stevenson, secretary of the 8.M.A., tonight. Dr. Stevenson is in Wellington on his way to the meeting of the World Medical Association in Manila next week. “To all intents and purposes the New Zealand branch of the B.M.A. is an independent body,” he said. “The B.M.A. in London certainly does not control the New Zealand branch, which makes its own decisions.

“Inevitably the first move must come from the doctors

in New Zealand, and, at present, there is no firm application for complete autonomy.” Most of New Zealand's 3800 registered medical practitioners belong to the New Zealand branch of the B.M.A. But more than 700 are members of the New Zealand Medical Association.

One step taken by the New Zealand branch which had not been followed by the British body concerned the prescription of contraceptives, said Dr. Stevenson. He was a little surprised when told that the ethical committee of the New Zealand branch had recently recommended that doctors should not prescribe contraceptives for unmarried people. “This is something that is left entirely up to the individual doctor in Britain. Some doctors feel very strongly about the moral aspect of it, but there is no official B.M.A. direction on the question.”

Unlike New Zealand doctors, British doctors were not the highest-paid professional group in the country. "The latest British figures put doctors third in Britain. Above them are barristers and insurance actuaries.”

A survey of Auckland general practitioners’ incomes for the year ended March 31, 1965, showed average gross earnings of £5725. Average net income was £3629. Economics were the basic reason for the current discontent among British doctors, said Dr. Stevenson. “We are losing about 400 to 500 a year out of a total intake from the medical schools of about 2200. This is partly offset by the number of young doctors from India and Pakistan who come over for two or three years as house surgeons before going back home. “In fact, they now constitute about 40 per cent of the junior hospital staffs and we couldn't do without them.”