Doctor denies any refusal of care

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34021, 10 December 1975, Page 12

Doctor denies any refusal of care

No doctor in practice would refuse to care for, or help, anyone needing medical attention, a urologist practising in Christchurch (Mr N. F. Greenslade) says in a reply to a correspondent. The writer, S. Donaldson, asked whether it was true that a doctor could refuse medical aid to a person, either because he had been instructed to by his association, or simply because he chose to. ' “Should the patient be left to suffer and perhaps to die?” the writer asked. And in the “medical deserts” — remote country areas and districts like Porirua, where there is insufficient or no medical aid — should farmers’ wives die from complications of pregnancy, should farmhands bleed to death from tractor accidents, and should small children die from accidental poisoning, because qo private doctor chooses to practise in their area? Would it be better if there were a supplementary State medical service — an expansion of the “special areas” — to serve the people where the Medical Association will not? Replying to the correspondent’s first question, Mr Greenslade said that a doctor could only refuse aid if medicine were the kind of profession that worked on a

legal basis. If this were so, either party to the contract could refuse to accept it. “However, medicine does not work on this legal basis. In practice no doctor would i refuse to care for and help: anyone requiring medical at-1 tention. This is the basis of] our profession.” On the question of the ■doctor shortage, Mr Greenslade said that New Zealand i was short of about 280 general practitioners. It was the iright of any doctor — like I anyone else in the communi ity — to live and work I where he chose. “It is obvious that New Zealand doctors are working I under a considerable load jand that this must result in isorne stretching of services.” There are two ways to Cope with this situation. The first is to increase the number of doctors. This is being done by the present enlargement of our medical schools and the addition of our clinical schools. “The second way is to use the ‘special area’ policy in which the medical profession and the Health Department have co-operated for many years. This policy was worked out to compensate a doctor for living and working in an area he would prefer to not live in. “This agreed policy would still cover the apparent deficiency of medical services in an under-doctored area,” he said.