TAKING OF DRUGS
BIG LEAP UNDER HEALTH PLAN Rec. 9 a.m. MELBOURNE, April 23. ; "The consumption of drugs has jumped so notably under New Zealand's national health scheme that 'both the Government and the medical authorities are worried ab"dut it," says Douglas Brass, writing in the Melbourne "Herald." He quotes a hospital superintendent as telling him: The people are taking all sorts ol ; hog-wash. It is a great day for the chemist and the patent medicine man. Mr. Brass says that while it was originally estimated that 6s per head of the population would cover the pharmaceutical benefits, under the health scheme the figure this year will be near 12s per head. The Minister of Health believes that a few doctors are piling on the cost in the effort to sabotage the plans, but that most doctors are prescribing more expensive drugs because they know the patient does not have to pay. Mr. Brass lists three influences at work in sending up New Zealand's national medicine bill. They are. first, people like taking medicines when they do not cost anything, secondly, doctors like prescribing medicines when they do not.cost anything, thirdly, war worries lead to the talung of sedatives.
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Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 96, 24 April 1945, Page 6
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199TAKING OF DRUGS Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 96, 24 April 1945, Page 6
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