NEW REGULATIONS PROPOSED

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 8, 4 October 1941, Page 11

NEW REGULATIONS PROPOSED

To Prevent Abuse Of Free Scheme PAY FOR SUNDAY WORK BY DOCTORS “Regulations are being drafted to deal with the patient who is taking advantage of the fact that there is a free scheme, and going to the doctor unnecessarily,” said the Minister of Health, Mr. Nordmeyer, during the committee stage of the Bill. He said that if a case could be proved against such a person he might be required to pay the whole of the doctor’s fee himself. Mr. Nordmeyer replied to suggest tions made by the Opposition with a view to preventing the over-crowding of doctors’ surgeries by people who really did not require medical attention. One proposal was that alO per cent, rebate should 'be allowed taxpayers who did not have a claim in any year, and another was that the patient should be made responsible for, say, the first 2/- of the doctor’s fee. In this way it was contended that unnecessary calls would not be made. The Minister answered that these points had not been overlooked. One of the difficulties would be that of administration, and another was that the Government did not desire to have any barrier between any person and necessary service. There was no desire to prevent people consulting doctors in the early stages of disease. . Replying to Mr. Gordon (Opposition, Rangitikei), Mr. Nordmeyer announced that it was the intention of the Government that doctors should be paid for Sunday work at the same rate as for night work. They were certainly entitled to it, he added. Provision would be made accordingly by regulation. In reply to the same member, the Minister said that there was nothing to stop a doctor from having patients under the capitation scheme and also under the fee-for-servlce scheme. He could not claim mileage under both schemes, however. The Minister also said that doctors would have the right to sue for fees for service not in the definition. of medical benefits and for the fees fixed in the Bill.

A plea for back-country settlers, to prevent them being charged mileage fees when they were obliged to call a doctor, was made by Mr. Broadtool (Opposition, Waitomo). The Minister of Health said that if experience proved it wise to move in this direction, he would be pleased later to make such a recommendation to the Government. Recovery of Fees. A plea for the right of doctors to have recourse to the courts for the recovery of fees was made by Mr. Coates (Opposition, Kaipara). The Prime Minister, Mr. Fraser, replying, said that Mr. Coates’s representations would receive the Government’s earnest consideration. Mr. Coates said that as the Bill was now amended, a doctor could arrange with a. patient .for a larger fee than that prescribed by the Bill, but he could not go to court for the balance. This meant that the medical profession was the only section of the community denied a right belonging to every other section. It was not wise, in the interests of co-operation by the doctors, that they should thus be discriminated against. Would not the Government reconsider the point? The fact that medical men very rarely went to court for the fees should not mean that they were deprived of the right by Act of Parliament. Mr. Fraser said that the best thing to do was to leave the clause iu the Bill iu the meantime. The Government would have another look at it when the Bill was in the Upper House, and was quite prepared to discuss the matter with the doctors. He would welcome the doctors’ co-operation to see how the legislation could be further improved. “The most extraordinary thing about this Bill,” said the Prime Minister, “is that everybody agrees with the subject that it is aiming at.” The Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Holland, said that every effort should be made to avoid wrangling over fees between doctor and patient. He pointed out that In a surgical case the doctor could legally recover his fee, but a general practitioner working under the legislation could not.