HOSPITAL BENEFITS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 19 April 1939, Page 11

HOSPITAL BENEFITS

GOVERNMENT’S CIRCULAR LETTER Some further information on the Government’s proposals for instituting hospital benefits under the Social Security Act is given in a circular letter sent by the acting-Director-General of Health to all hospital boards. Briefly (says the ‘‘N.Z. Herald”) the suggestions put forward are that free hospital service should be made available about Ist June; that boards requiring to do so should make temporary arrangements for the payment of visiting doctors who at present serve in an honorary capacity; and that proposals for permanent arrangements should be submitted to the department as soon as possible. It is difficult to see how this move on the part of the Government can clarify to any appreciable degree the existing uncertainty regarding the introduction of health services. In the first place, it seems that the Government is endeavouring to transfer to the hospital boards the responsibility for negotiating financial terms with members of the medical profession, but the doctors themselves may quite conceivably insist on dealing direct with the Government, which, in the last resort, will be responsible for their payment. A point of even greater importance is that the hospital boards are being asked to meet additional salary charges in respect of their honorary staffs without the slightest knowledge of what the Government proposes to pay by way of subsidy from the Social Security Fund. A figure of 6s per day for each occupied bed has been suggested, but something more definite than suggestions is required when boards are urged to undertake financial commitments that may react unfavourably on their own ratepayers. The Government’s plans are apparently still incomplete, and until they can be put forward in proper detail the public will probably have to continue paying the full Social Security contribution for an incomplete return.