“FREE” MEDICINE IN AUSTRALIA: SCHEME AMENDED

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 March 1949, Page 7

“FREE” MEDICINE IN AUSTRALIA: SCHEME AMENDED

i CANBERRA, March 10. An amending Pharmaceutical Benefits Bill was introduced in the Australian Senate today by the Mininster of Health (Senator McKenna). I he bill has been introduced because of the opposition by the doctors to the Government’s free medicine scheme. It amends the Pharmaceutical Benefits Act passed in 1947. Only 117 doctors in Australia had co-operated in the Government's free medicine scheme, while nearly 6000 doctors had remained outside the scheme, said Senator McKenna in the Senate. The bill introduced today made it compulsory for a doctor prescribing a medicine or an appliance listed in the Commonwealth Pharmaceutical Formulary to write his prescriptions on a form supplied by. the Commonwealth. These medicines and appliances could then be obtained from a chemist without charge. “This amendment neither proposes nor initiates any interference with the practice of medicine,” said Senator McKenna, explaining the compulsory use of an official prescription form. “The doctor still diagnoses and assesses his patient’s needs in the light of his medical knowledge and experience and in accordance with amendment takes effect only after the doctor has formed his opinion or judgment'. If in his opinion his patient needs one of the specific compounds or appliances named in the Commonwealth Pharmaceutical Formulary, then the prescription which conveys his instructions to the chemist must be written on the form provided by the Commonwealth.” The Minister added that. the I amending bill would come into opi eration on a date to lie fixed by pro- | clamation. Recently, he said, the DirectorGeneral of Health had again invited the Federal Council of the British

Medical Association to submit the names of members for appointment to the Formulary along lines sugno reply had been received. When the committee was established, and the Government hoped it would be established without delay, revisions of the formularly along lines suggested, and to incorporate new and tested drugs, would be put in hand. “The Government, having regard to the continuing attitude of the Federal Council of tile 8.M.A.,' to the feet that the many concessions it has made have not been met by any willingness on the part of this body to co-operate, and to the fact that some 117 doctors throughout Australia using the formulary have found it in practice adequate to provide for the major portion of their patients’ needs, is determined that the present unsatisfactory position shall be resolved,” said the Minister. “The Government proposes in this measure to ensure that the benefits it sought to provide and which the people themselves have approved will be available to the people.”