Medical Services In "State Of Crisis”

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32304, 23 May 1970, Page 18

Medical Services In "State Of Crisis”

(New Zealand Press Association/

WELLINGTON, May 21.

Many fields of medical services in New Zealand were in a state of crisis, said Mr N. J. King (Lab., Birkenhead) in Parliament this evening. Speaking during the resumed secondreading debate on the Hospitals Amendment Bill, Mr King claimed that crises were promoted by staff shortages.

The bill’s main provision is authorisation for hospital boards to establish and maintain health centres. Mr V. S. Young (Nat., Egmont) said health centres had been in use in the United Kingdom for some years “with some degree of success.” In the present shortage of medical skills, the Government had to ensure that those who had these skills used them to the best advantage. But to claims of “crisis" conditions in medical services, Mr Young said: “1 challenge any member of the Labour Party to produce one New Zealander who is in urgent need of medical attention and who has not been able to receive treatment.”

To alleviate the shortage of doctors, Mr Young suggested that New Zealand should begin a promotion campaign overseas aimed at the medical profession, showing that

New Zealand could offer a low cost structure, rapidly developing medical and surgical facilities, and a way of life that could appeal not only to overseas doctors but also to their families. Referring to a clause in the bill which allows the Minister of Health to give greater discretionary spending powers to hospital boards, Mr Young said it was “fair and reasonable” that the larger boards should have greater discretion in spending.

Mr E. S. F. Holland (Nat., Riccarton) described Opposition criticism that the hospital services were being run down and allowed to deteriorate as “political propaganda.

“Let them name one single urgent case requiring treatment that was not immediately' admitted to a public hospital,” Mr Holland said. The great majority on socalled waiting lists were people with non-urgent complaints, he said. But Mr F. M. Colman (Lab., Petone) said the deterioration of hospital services was a fact. People needing medical care and attention were being forced to go into private hospitals, he said.