MEDICAL BENEFITS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 3 December 1940, Page 4

MEDICAL BENEFITS

ATTITUDE OF B.M.A. PRESENT TIME CONSIDERED INOPPORTUNE POSTPONEMENT TILL AFTER WAR URGED The attitude of the medical profession of the Dominion towards the proposed introduction in January of the general practitioner service under the Social Security Act was expressed to-day by Dr. J. P. S. Jamieson, chairman of the National Health Insurance Committee of the British Medical Association. Dr. Jamieson said that the committee had urged that further consideration of the matter should be deferred until the conclusion of the war and demobilisation and that the present time was inopportune for a demand for a kind of change which was considered impracticable under the present circumstances. “At the present time the less said about the Free, Universal, General Practitioner Service the better,” said Dr. Jamieson. “Having brought the greater part of the Social Security Act into operation with a minimum of delay, the Government should not be criticised for caution in introducing this portion of the provisions of the Act. This is especially so as it would appear that the full amount at least of the tax collected is already being paid out. “Neither should the profession be blamed for hesitancy in committing itself to a system which, overnight, would profoundly alter the system of the practice of medicine without time for natural development and adjustments, and in a period when the future is so uncertain. “PRESENT MOMENT INOPPORTUNE” “It must be obvious to everyone that the present moment, in the midst of a conflict for the survival of the Empire, is altogether inopportune for proceeding with such a matter of domestic concern. It is the more inopportune since so great a proportion of the medical profession, amounting to fully twenty-five per cent., is absorbed already in military service; while more will be called upon. Moreover nothing could be more inopportune for the Department than to be faced with the laying down and the administration of a new system while engaged with the ever-increasing burden of work which war involves. MILITARY SERVICE BY DOCTORS “The Association agrees absolutely with what has already been said by the Prime Minister, that ‘the one thing that matters, indeed the only thing that really and fundamentally matters for New Zealand at present, is our national war effort.’ For that reason members have placed their services to an unexampled extent at the disposal of the National Medical Committee for military service in any capacity for which they may be suitable, having regard to civil requirements. As a body and individually we have made many arrangements to liberate suitable men for military service, and to maintain civilian service. “We have urged, therefore, that further consideration of this matter should be deferred until *£ie conclusion of war and demobilisation. The profession continues to exercise its long-accorded privilege of working as long and as hard as ever it can without anybody minding, and feels that it may rely on the good sense of the people not to embarrass the Government or to harass the profession by a demand for a kind of change which is impracticable.”