Health Proposals Attacked

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 174, 26 July 1938, Page 7

Health Proposals Attacked

Doctors Ignored “CAVALIER DISMISSAL OF REPRESENTATIONS'* Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, July 25. Commenting to-day on the report of the Select Committee® on National Health, Insurance and Superannuation, Dr. J. P. R. Jamieson, president of the New Zealand branch of the British Medical Association, said it was evident from the cursory summary that the committee had made of the case presented by the association and its cavalier dismissal of the association’s representations, that the committee was determined to ignore everything that did not fit in with the Government’s preconceived ideas. “It is,” Dr. Jamieson said, “notoriously difficult for reason end experience to prevail against this attitude of mind. The clear evidence of the committee’! attitude is supplied in reference to the association’s representations that the proposals would lead to a deterioration in the standard of practice and the committee’s declaration, ‘indeed the evidence points strongly in the opposite direction.’ What was that evidence? The irrefutable fact is that the only evidence on this point was given by the association—the only body competent to give it. How then could the committee have arrived at a finding totally at variance with the evidence submitted to it? "Further, the committee has taken pains to make quotations from a former statement of Sir Henry Erackenbury which have no relation whatever to New Zealand, but has refrained from reference to many statements which the same authority made here a few months ago after investigation on the spot directly opposed to such proposals as have been put forward by the Government and slavishly supported by the select committee. “These facts,” continued Dr. Jamieson. "fully justify the contention which the association has always held that this investigation should have been carried out in the first instance by a specially qualified non-political body, and ample time given for the people as a whole to understand the position. As it is not known how far the Government proposes to adopt the committee’s recommendations, it would be unprofitable to discuss the matter further at this stage.”