Fees inquiry urged

Press, 25 February 1985, Page 19

Fees inquiry urged

PA Wellington The fees row between family doctors and the Government should be put before the Commerce Commission for a decision on what charge was appropriate, says the director of the Consumers’ Institute, Mr Dick Smithies. “One year ago the medical practitioners were in a slanging match with the then Minister of Health, Mr Malcolm, over their fees,” Mr Smithies said. “Now they are at loggerheads with the new Minister of Health, Dr Bassett, on the same subject. “In the interim the doctors have been given one thing they wanted: a doubling of the State subsidy for a visit by a child to a family doctor. “But still the doctors are

demanding that they should be free to fix whatever total fee (including the subsidy) they wish. “Dr Bassett is quite right to insist that a ceiling must be placed on charges for a child visit when the subsidy is a massive 59.50,” Mr Smithies said. He said there was “abundant evidence” that some doctors could not be relied upon to be reasonable in the prices they charged. “A- year ago many doctors, especially in Auckland and Wellington, hoisted prices by unacceptable amounts, and were forced by the price authorities to roll their charges back,” he said. “Only a few months earlier an article in the journal of the General Practitioner Society argued that family doctors were entitled

to receive more than $lOO an hour or about $l6 to $2O a 10-minute visit. This in our view is unacceptably high.” Mr Smithies said there was ample precedent to let the Commerce Commission make a public inquiry and decide upon a maximum charge fair both to doctors and to consumers. “Under section 104 of the Commerce Act it is a simple matter for the Government to set up such an inquiry. “This would take the issue out of the political arena and put it before an independent and experienced pricing tribunal. It would also take the heat off the large numbers of doctors who are reasonable in their prices and uncomfortable about this protracted row,” he said.