STATE MEDICAL SERVICES

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 110, 3 February 1938, Page 15

STATE MEDICAL SERVICES

Establishment Inevitable OPINION OF LONDON SURGEON By Telegraph—Press Association. Christchurch, February 2. “State medical services must come, said Mr. E. C. Lindsay, C.8.E., M. 8., B.C O F.R.C.S., a noted London surgeon and formerly of Christchurch, in an interview with “The Press:” Mr. Lindsay, who arrived in the city to-day for a short visit, was born in Christchurch and graduated first at Otago University. He is now senior surgeon at the London General Hospital, consulting surgeon to the Poplar Hospital, London, and an examiner in surgery at Cambridge University. Commenting on the proposed national health insurance scheme in New Zealand, Mr. Lindsay said that - such schemes would in time become natural developments in different civilised countries throughout the world. He described briefly the gradual trend in Great Britain, particularly in London, to the permanent establishment of medical and health schemes under control of the Government. These schemes were necessary to enable the poorer classes to obtain competent medical attention, he said. Under a system of private practice this had been impossible because these classes were unable to pay the fees which were demanded. 2knother trouble that in many cases arose from this system was that it meant that many private practitioners wer\ acquiring patients for income rather than with the idea of rendering assistance to sufferers. As it was, it was very seldom that a private practitioner attended to minor ailments as he sent these cases to hospitals to he dealt with there. Tn London, continued Mr. Lindsay, the London County Council was, by gradual development of a general scheme of opening hospitals and providing competent surgeons and physicians, disclosing a field in medicine which was unknown 25 years ago. This, he considered, was the first stage in the establishment of a medical service which would in time embrace the whole nation. Steps were also being taken in other large cities in Great Britain to provide similar facilities. Another scheme which was assisting the slow but sure development of a State medical service was the formation of the Hospital Saving Association. This establishment made It possible, by means of regular payments to the association, for persons of the poorer classes to pay hospital expenses and doctors’ fees when they were suffering from any ailment. Members of the association made periodical payments, and when it was necessary for them to receive attention they were admitted to hospital and attended to by a doctor, fees and expenses being paid by the association. This saving scheme was being p'atronlsed not only by the poorer classes, but also by men who were earning salaries of. say, £BOO. The yearly income of the association had risen rapidly, said'Mr. Lindsay, and was now nearly £1,000,000 annually. Prominent medical men in Great Britain had been alive for some .veal’s to the possibilities, and inevitable establishment of State services. One famous physician had stated some years ago that “The State medical service has got to come, and we have got to try and envisage it.” Mr. Lindsay said that the national scheme which it was proposed to establish in the Dominion was very similar to the' proposals which were being made In Great Britain. There was no doubt, he concluded, that this system, if properly administered, would have the desired effect of giving the poorer classes a vastly-improved medical service.