MATERNITY BENEFITS

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 July 1939, Page 3

MATERNITY BENEFITS

I- .■>, ■ v. *■ MINISTER ANSWERS DOCTOR. [per press association.] WELLING ; TQISr,, J Illy 13.. “I have seen the,reported remarks of Dr. Henry Jellettsas to the effect of : the maternity benefits, on the training; of midwivps and .maternity iiprsJes, and regret that;, so. well-kn'owh and respecte,d an. authority, as Qr. Jpllett should have failed, to acquaint himself with the facts before,publishing-, his views,,” .‘laid the Minister for Health (Mr. Eraser), to-night,. , “That the maternity benefits have been, made available at , St, Helens Hospitals,, and at other maternity hps-j pitpls recognised .as training, schools; does not mean those hospitals have been opened to any doctor,” said the Minister. “In the four St. Helens jicispitals, which are the only training schools for midwives, the same medical staff are engaged as heretofore, and for the very reasons that Dr. JelIqtt gives—the necessity for ensuring that not only shall the attention of patients, in the,se hospitals be the best procurable but that, the staff shall! have experience in clinical teaching. I Patients cannot, therefore, arrange to’ be , attended in these hospitals byi ether than the staff of specialists engaged by the Government for this work. •‘Similarly, the medical staffing of| hospital board hospitals recognised as training schools for maternity nurses is in no way affected by the operation of the maternity benefits. The position of training schools was- fully considered when the provisions of the act relating to the maternity benefits were being drafted. It was for this reason, chiefly ,that a proviso was inserted in section 95 (2) of the act to the effect that, a woman’s right to select, the medical, practitioner by whom she was to be attended was, in the case of patients confined in a hospital, subject to the concurrence of the hospital authorities. “The importance of safeguarding the standard of training of midwives and maternity nurses has not for a moment been lost sight of. Any . suggestion! by Dr. Jellett that the Government! lias not fully consulted departmental advisers on this or other aspects of the scheme is quite without foundation.”