N.Z. Experience Of Free Medicine Scheme

Northern Advocate, 23 August 1948, Page 5

N.Z. Experience Of Free Medicine Scheme

PERTH. Sun. —Although the primary attitude of- the New Zealand branch of the British Medical Association toward New Zealand’s national medicine scheme was to have nothing to do with it. the association finally found that it had to cooperate with the Government, said Dr E. H. M. Luke, chairman of the New Zealand Council of the 8.M.A., in an address to a special meeting of Western Australian doctors. He added that New Zealand was somewhat of a guinea pig in the trying out of free medicine. “The method was thrust upon the association,” he said, “but we found our own standards tending to depreciate and decided to sort out some of the mess the politicians had got us into.” A joint committee of the Health Department and the 8.M.A., which started sitting in 1947, had submitted several proposals to the Government which it was hoped would be accepted.

Dr Luke's address was warmly applauded. In Western Australia, as in other Australian states,' the free medicine scheme has met with the hostility of the medical profession. Only three doctors subscribe to it.