HEALTH SCHEME

Hokitika Guardian, 29 April 1939, Page 7

HEALTH SCHEME

HON. I>. FRASER’S STATEMENT

(Per Press Association.—Copyright).

WELLINGTON, April 28.

Emphatically affirming that the Government's health proposals will go on, in spite of whatever difficulties, may be in the way, or may be deliberately created, the Minister of Health, Hon. Peter Fraser, in a; strongly-worded statement, issued today, declared that if the British Medical Association persisted in its present attitude towards the Health Scheme, its responsibility in delaying, curtailing, or obstructing the Government’s scheme will bo very great, and the odium of even the partial prevention of tlie, people enjoying the full benefits will inevitably be associated with the instigators of,its policy. “In a statement recently published, the Council of the New Zealand Branch of the British Medical Association mentions a communcation from myself,” said Hon. Mr. Fraser. “This communication was an invitation to the Association to nominate representatives for appointment to a Central Medical Committee which it was proposed to set up as a means of formal consultation on the various aspects of the Social Security, Scheme affecting the medical profession. As an alternative, .1 expressed my willingness to consider the recognition of ’the Committed of the Association itself as a consultative, body. Tn the Associritioh’s statement, the Government scheme is erroneously represented as .providing a partial or limited serviob, whereas the Government’s proposals, as embodied in the legislation, provide for the establishment, by stages, of a complete range treatment benefits for the sick and the injured. GOVERNMENT PROPOSALS. ■WELLINGTON, April 28. “I am informed that it . has been wrongly represented to a considerable number of medical practitioners that an undertaking had been given by the Government that the present offer relating to the maternity-medical services would be made through the New Zealand Branch of the British Medical' Association.” said Hon. P, Fraser (Minister of Health). “To remove . any misapprehension on this | point, I have' to' state that the Government’s proposal to invite the doctors to enter into a contract of service in relation to the maternity benefits has been - specially discussed, by the Departmental officers with * the representatives of the British Medical [Association. I am assured that it was fully appreciated, and that it was agreed that no purpose would be served by using the Association as a medium for placing the offer of contracts in the hands of practitioners. Such an arrangement would, of course, merely have amounted to the Association acting as a distributing agency for the Department, In the circumstances, the Department is undertaking., the actual distribution of formal offers. “In view of this fact, any assertion from representatives of the British Medical Association that the present documents are being circulated to practitioners without any further reference to the Association • would be redundant, and any possible complaint on this score would be wholly unwarranted. I must repeat that lam assured that ,my Departmental officers are firmly of the opinion that the representatives of the British Medical Association fully understood the course that was to be followed in the issuing of the relevant documents, and that they agreed that nothing was to* be gained by sending them to individual doctors through the Association.”