Benefit inadequate, say doctors

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32972, 19 July 1972, Page 16

Benefit inadequate, say doctors

(Hew Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, July 18.

Doctors could not be expected to subsidise patients when it was the community’s responsibility to do so, the president of the Medical Association of New Zealand (Dr R. F. Elliot) said on “Gallery” tonight.

Dr Elliot said some disadvantaged people were not having children immunised because of the size of the fee.

“We have told the Government the benefit as paid at present is inadequate and is a bar to people seeking medical help,” Dr Elliot said. The president of the New Zealand Medical Association (Dr E. Geiringer) said that the Government had sabotaged plans to relieve the chronic doctor shortage, and was causing many patients to be turned away from doctors every day. He was commenting on an incident last week when a five-month-old girl died in Auckland after its mother had been refused entry to a doctor’s surgery because she could not pay for treatment. It was claimed on the programme that the 18-year-old Maori mother, herself suffering from a heart condition, did not have 50c to pay for medical treatment, and was told that the doctor was not seeing any more non-paying patients. She did not tell the doctor her baby was ill, and the next night the baby died. Two Auckland Labour M.P.s, Mr N. J. King and Mr E. Isbey, called in Parliament for a Government investigation of the incident. “Gallery” was told tonight that, because of the doctor shortage, the doctor concerned in the Auckland incident had been seeing about 60 patients a day. Dr Geiringer said doctors should see only 15 or so patients a day to provide good medical care. There should be a social care system to look after people such as those involved in the Auckland incident. “A patient who doesn’t pay Is a patient who doesn’t pay

land you just forget about I him—if you can, if your 1 iconscience allows you,” he ’ said. 1 It was doctors in poorer areas who are forced to turn 1 away patients. The doctors < in richer areas could sub- 1 sidise some of their patients < from fees paid by more well- : to-do patients, Dr Geiringer i said. 1

Dr Geiringer said he believed “thousands” of people were not going to doctors because the fee is too high. Earlier in the programme, Dr A. F. Hunter, the president of the Auckland division of the Medical Association of New Zealand said no-one should be refused medical treatment because they had no money.