Community health potential emphasised

Press, 16 June 1983, Page 4

Community health potential emphasised

Pouring money into hospital beds and buildings was not the answer to New Zealand’s outdated health system, said a former Labour Minister of Health, Mr T. M. McGuigan, has said. Health services were un-co-ordinated and not meeting community needs, he told the Cardiac Companions Association at its annual meeting. Some of his fellow members of the North Canterbury Hospital Board might disagree, but Mr McGuigan believed that too much emphasis was put on treating and not preventing illness. “The trend is not towards expansion in the areas requiring care of the community but expansion is still within the institutions,” he said. New health problems — such as heart disease, alcohol addiction, and'mental illness — needed different solutions. Mr McGuigan said more effort should go into health education, primary health care through family doctors, services for the elderly and handicapped, and voluntary organisations. Hospital boards had to accept that it was just as important to encourage services which kept people out of hospital.

The association chairman, Mr A. P. Millthorpe, was elected to his second term. Other executive members were also re-elected unopposed.