N.Z. MEDICAL SERVICE UNDER FIRE FROM DR. PORRITT

Grey River Argus, 30 June 1947, Page 2

N.Z. MEDICAL SERVICE UNDER FIRE FROM DR. PORRITT

LONDON, June 23.

In a letter to the Sunday Times, Sir Ernest. Graham-Little, Independent member for London University. and 7 head of the skin department of St. Mary's Hospital, referring to a recent report published by the Sunday Times on conditions in New Zealand, quotes extracts from an article written for the St. Mary’s Hospital Gazette by Dr. A. E. Porritt, after his recent visit to New Zealand.

In this report, Dr Porritt states that in ten years the “partial state medical service in the Dominion” has produced:—• (1) A slightly-improved all-round service for the public—during' business hours, but that to obtain the services of a doctor in New Zealand after 6 p.m. is not an enviable task.

<2) A definite falling-off in the standard of med cal practice from both the ethical and clinical viewpoints.

(3) A growing and appreciable dearth of specialists, and this in a country where the proportion of men taking higher degrees was previously exceptionally high.

Sir Ernest Graham-Little claims these criticisms have been corroborated in every detail, and he quotes a recent publication, “Health Reform in New Zealand,” by Douglass Robb, in support of this statement.