Hospital Prescriptions

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31657, 18 April 1968, Page 8

Hospital Prescriptions

Sir, —On what legal basis does the action of the North Canterbury Hospital Board rest when it refuses citizens medical aid until they have first paid a fee to a private doctor for permission to attend a hospital clinic? When all the income you have is $47 a calendar month for food, firing, transport, clothes, electrical charges, insurance, rents, etc., this payment of $1.25 to $2.50 to a member

of the medical profession is a very real hardship. Was the rule intended to protect the board from legal liability where the Medical Association directs that treatment be withheld for any reason? Whatever the reason, in this time of economic crisis, it is time it was rescinded.— Yours, etc., SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFICIARY. Anril 3. 1968. (The medical superinten-dent-in-chief of the North Canterbury Hospital Board (Dr L. McH. Berry) replies: “It is realised that a fee to a general practitioner may be a hardship, but it has been the normal practice for general practitioners in such cases to be prepared to negotiate a suitable fee or to waive a fee entirely in respect of treatment of pensioners.”]