FREE MEDICINE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22620, 24 April 1948, Page 5

FREE MEDICINE

AUSTRALIAN PLAN METHODS OPPOSED PENALTIES FOR DOCTORS SYDNEY; April 23. The British Medical Association will boycott the Federal Government scheme to provide free medicine under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Act, passed last June. Dr. Norman Sherwood, Queensland, president of the association, said in Brisbane that the association was not prepared to co-operate in the scheme in its present form and that unless the Government had the co-operation of the doctors he could not see how the scheme could operate. Under the scheme, which will begin on May 15, all persons usually living in Australia will be entitled to free medicine if a doctor prescribes this on a special form. Dr. Sherwood said that the British Medical Association would not use the form. The reasons for non-co-operation, according to Dr. Sherwood, are: First, the existence of a penalty clause providing a penality of £SO and three months’ imprisonment for infringement of any condition of the Act, and, secondly, that a doctor is denied the right to prescribe what he desires in the interests of his patient. The general secretary of the association, Dr. John Hunter, said that the association had decided to disregard the scheme as it stood. “We do not object to the Government granting free medicine, but we do oppose the methods by which this is done,” he said. “We believe that a doctor who does wrong should be dealt with under the ordinary penal code.” Under the scheme every person, irrespective of income, will be entitled to free medical and pharmaceutical materials, including all sulpha drugs, penicillin, insulin and other biological preparations.