Govt, doctors reticent after fee rise talks

Press, 2 May 1984, Page 6

Govt, doctors reticent after fee rise talks

PA Wellington The Government and the Medical Association were reticent yesterday after a three-hour meeting over doctors’ fee rises. Earlier the Minister of Health, Mr Malcolm, had said that doctors were being selfish and defiant and the Medical Association’s chairman, Dr Dean Williams, had said there was a vendetta against doctors. Mr Malcolm had said that he would tell doctors “in very blunt terms” not to pressure him into introducing regulations to control increases. The meeting was called after a survey in Auckland showed that 80 per cent of doctors may have increased their fees since the wageprice freeze was lifted. “They are being very, very selfish and defiant and are inviting the Government to come down very hard on them,” Mr Malcolm said. “I will lay down the line to Dr Williams on Tuesday,” he said. Dr Williams in reply had said that the Minister was overstating the case and using emotive language. “We are getting a little tired of being singled out as the only bad ones who are increasing their charges by

too much,” he said. The meeting yesterday produced a four-paragraph press statement, which said that the meeting had been constructive and that the problem of doctors’ fee increases was widespread. It said that the issue would need discussion with the executive committee of the Medical Association which would meet on May 9, and both men had agreed there would be no further statements until after that meeting. Mr Malcolm would not comment when asked what the “blunt” message to Dr Williams had been, whether he and the association had agreed on anything, and whether any decision at all on how to handle the fees problem had been made. An Auckland doctor who increased his consultancy fee from $lO to $l5 was told to reduce it to no more than $10.50, after investigations by the Trade and Industry Department, who said that the 50 per cent increase was not justified. Auckland’s assistant regional director of commerce, Mr Paul Barrett, said that unless the doctor could supply more information to convince the department otherwise, he would be

allowed only a 5 per cent (50c) increase in fees. About 140 Auckland doctors were being investigated by the department for excessive fee increases since the price freeze lifted on March 1. Some had increased their fees as much as 75 per cent. The department decided to survey every doctor in the Auckland region because of the number of complaints it received about fee increases. It found that between 80 per cent and 90 per cent of them had increased their fees. Mr Barrett said that although only one investigation was completed, in most cases it looked as though fee increases of 50c or 5 per cent were all that could be justified. The leader of the New Zealand Party, Mr Bob

Jones, said yesterday he wanted to know if the price freeze had been lifted. “The Government ought to make up its mind,” he said. “For a party that ostensibly subscribes to the market place it was bad enough to impose the freeze in the first place. Then to twice more extend it contrary to their undertakings was deplorable.” He said the Government had “trumpeted” that it had lifted the freeze. That being the case, the medical profession ought not to be subject to an attack, he said. He said New Zealand’s doctors were already the lowest paid of doctors in any O.E.C.D. nation and if the present situation persisted the country could soon find itself “doctor-less” due to emigration.