PEFENDED BY MINISTER

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 105, 4 May 1926, Page 8

PEFENDED BY MINISTER

BOARD SYSTEM A WELL-TRIED INSTITUTION

lAS THE B.M.A. A GRIEVANCE?

(By Telegraph.—Pres9 Association.)

AUCKLAND, 3rd May.

"The interpretation of some innocent remarks of mine at Huntly has brought upon my head the seeming displeasure ©f some members of the British Medical Association," stated the . Minister of Health, the Hon. J. A. Young, when •peaking at the opening of tho new loma for nursed at Auckland Infirmary yesterday. It may be explained that tho Minister had made a statement at Huntly to the effect that his policy ■would be to preserve the control of hospitals in the hands of tho people, •who were responsible for arranging the finance and organisation of them; and that while he recognised and appreciated tho great service rendered by doctors, he considered it would be a jsorious mistake if the control of the hospitals were to pass into the hands of the medical profession. This remark of the Minister brought a reply from tho chairman of the Council of ,the New Zealand branch of the British Medical Association (Dr. H. E. Gibbs) Asserting emphatically that neither individually nor collectively did the doctors desire to control hospitals or their policy. Mr. Young referred to a later attack ion him published in Auckland. This was in the form of an interview with an official of the British Medical Association, who' alleged that the Minister had gone oat of his way to offer the medical profession a gratuitous insult. (With a laugh and a shrug, Mr. Young eaid that his shoulders were 'broad enough to bear all the abuse and criticism thrown at him. As long as he knew that he was on safe ground and jwas doing the best thing in the interests of humanity he would take all the criticism, but he had made no attack at Huntly on tha British Medical Association. He would always listen and profit by the argument and counsel of the medical profession, and he issued a plea that all interested in hospital administration should reason with each other instead of quarrelling. BUSINESS AND FINANCE : SEPARATE. Since the attacks, on him, said the Minister, he had received sympathetic messages from members of the British Medical Association dissociating themselves from the criticism mentioned. He quoted the following from a published statement by Dr. E. H. B. Milsom, president of the Auckland division of the British Medical Association: "Officially I should like to say that, in so far as our association represents the medical profession of New Zealand, we, as a profession, recognise that the business and financial organisation and control of public hospitals are outside our province." Mr. Young went on to say: rncre is one important matter for gratification in it all, and that is, whatever my eeeming indiscretion in the eyes of the British Medical Association may have been, it has caused that worthy body to assert that it has no designs on our well-tried representative institution, the Hospital Board." The hospital system in New Zealand was a humanitarian institution. It had passed the stage of being regarded as a charity institution, and he wanted the medical profession to realise that this evolution had taken place. Those who could pay for hospital treatment would be charged; those who could not would £c allowed' to go scot free. America had been quoted as an example of hospital organisation, but generally in that country there was no provision for the middle-class; either a patient was reminded of his poverty, or else he paid very dearly for what he got. Everyone had an equal right to entry to hospitals in New Zealand. That principled been upheld by a Koyal Commission get up to hear the Bryce case. He did not accuse all doctors of being actuated by personal motives in reSard to the control of hospitals, but Kuld see the cloven hoof showing itself in some places. "Our hospital board Astern has been described a* • tefng politically controlled," said Mr. Young. "It is public control by elective boards under departmental supervision and assistance. It is a true.expression of our democratic free mstitu-*-ons."