MEDICAL SERVICES

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 December 1940, Page 6

MEDICAL SERVICES

MUTUAL ARRANGEMENT j [per press association.] WELLINGTON, December 3. The provision of the General Practitioner Service, on the basis of a mutual arrangement between the medical practitioners and patients, is made by an amendment to the Social Security Act, contained in the Finance Bill (No. 4), which was introduced and read the first time in the House to-night. The benefits under this amendment are to include: “All proper and necessary services of medical practitioners, except such services as may in accordance with the Regulations, be excluded therefrom, either absolutely, or in special circumstances, to be defined in the regulations.” A medical practitioner qualified to provide this service, and any person entitled to claim medical benefits for himself, or for any member of his family, may mutually agree, in a prescribed form and manner, for the provision of service. Medical practitioners undertaking the service will be entitled to a prescribed capitation fee for each person, but no other payment, with the exception of mileage fees, to be computed in accordance with the regulations. Practitioners who undertake to provide this service shall be deemed to -have entered into a contract of service, which may be terminated by the Minister on the recommendation of a special Tribunal and not otherwise. Mr. Nash, in introducing the Bill, replying to a question by Mr. S. G. Holland (Opposition Leader), said the Bill did not include provision for hospital outpatients, but the matter of their inclusion was at present under consideration.

B.M.A. ESTIMATE. WELLINGTON, December 4. The Government’s proposed general medical practitioner service would make the work of the medi- ; cal profession nigh impossible under present conditions, said Dr. S. D. Rhind, honorary general secretary of the 8.M.A., to-day. At the beginning of September, he said, the B.M.A. was asked by the Minister of Health if it could give some constructive proposals for working a general medical service. This problem has been discussed for the past four years without any satisfactory basis having been reached. The Minister was notified, alter a conference, that the B.M.A. was unable to submit a scheme for a general service which would satisfy the requirements of the Government and be practicable for the medical profession to undertake in the existing abnormal circumstances. The profession is extremely overworked at present, and any revolutionary change in general medical practice would make work almost impossible. “Since September, we have heard , nothing from the Minister until the broadcast last evening,” said Dr. Rhind, “and we know nothing of the Government’s intentions for the future. It would appear the Government is seeking to make private treaties with individual doctors, and it remains to be seen whether a sufficient number of medical men will accept its offer, to make its scheme work.”