‘Health Teams’Concept

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32358, 25 July 1970, Page 1

‘Health Teams’Concept

(N.Z. Press Association)

DUNEDIN, July 24.

The concept of medical teamwork to replace the family doctor has received approval at a doctors’ seminar in Dunedin on the organisation and evaluation of medical care.

The consensus among medical representatives at the three-day seminar was that family doctors should work in groups, said Dr J. B. LovellSmith, after the last session today.

Dr Lovell-Smith, who is secretary of the Medical Association of New Zealand, said

that discussion of the organisation and delivery of medical services to the commun- | ity had occupied most time at , the seminar. Changes in medicine had ■ made necessary a re-definition , of the roles played by various , types of doctors, in rationalisation of distribution, the con- ! cept of the “health team” had I gained approval. The “health team” would mean the integration of all services at the point where i the patient sought medical advice. At present, the ser- ’ vices ran parallel and did not • necessarily converge, Dr • Lovell-Smith said. The new concept of medical care would mean that doctors would work in groups in specially-designed buildings, where would be the rest of

the team—practising nurses, a medical social worker, a psychiatric worker, a physiotherapist, a public health nurse, and other staff. The team would provide emergency, specialist, and day-to-day care of a wide variety. Dr Lovell-Smith said that the team might make medical care less personal in emergency cases when the patient would have to accept whoever was available. But, generally, the ancillary staff would allow the doctor to spend more time with each patient. The main problem facing the introduction of "health teams” was lack of finance, he said. The cost of establishing a team with six doctors could be between $BO,OOO and $lOO,OOO.