Many treated free—G.P.s

Press, 3 May 1984, Page 8

Many treated free—G.P.s

PA . Auckland Most general practitioners attend between 10 to 20 per cent of their patients without charging a fee, according to a spokesman for doctors. The chairman of the council of the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners, Dr Murdoch Herbert, said yesterday that the standard of general practice would fall unless the Government provided more money for primary medical care or unless general practitioners increased their fees. “We must not let the present disagreement about fees obscure the fact that the Government has, over the last four years, failed to contribute enough money to

primary medical care,” he said.

“The present attempt to raise fees to the patient by many general practitioners is a sign that primary medical care is in urgent need of an injection of capital.

“If this does not come from the Government it must come from the patients or, as has been happening over the price freeze, by subsidy from the doctor,” Dr Herbert said. Patients received one of the cheapest primary medical care systems in the world and yet the standards had been kept high. If an injection of capital did not take place, the standard of general practice

would inevitably drop, he said.

“What has not been mentioned by the Minister of Health, Mr Malcolm, is that most doctors are attending between 10 and 20 per cent of their patients without charging any fee.” Since the expenses of general practice were about $5 a consultation, the $1.25 received from the Government for an adult patient who could not afford to pay the fee (the general medical subsidy) was not even covering the cost of a consultation, said Dr Herbert. “Either the doctor steadily loses more and more money or the money must come from the patients who can afford to pay a fee,” he said.