MATERNITY SERVICES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21347, 23 November 1932, Page 13

MATERNITY SERVICES

STATE'S RESPONSIBILITY

ALLEGATION OF EVASION

EFFECT ON ST. HELENS HOMES

[BY TELEGRAPH —SPECIAL REPORTER!

WELLINGTON, Tuesday

Suspicions regarding the proposal requiring hospital boards to provide maternity hospitals when called on by the DirectorGeneral of Health to do so were expressed in the House to-day when the Hospitals and Charitable Institutions Amendment Bill was under consideration at the second reading stage. Particular concern was felt regarding the effect of the proposal on St. Helena hospitals. Under the main Act of 1926, section 75, it is simply statod that a hospital board may (establish a maternity home. Many boards have done so, but tho Minister of Health, the Hon. J. A. Young, explained that it is proposed to make the provision mandatory, as some boards havo declined to provide such service when asked to do so.

Mr. Savage's Fears

"I can see in this clause a shifting of the cost of maternity services from tho shoulders of the Government to those of the hospital boards," said Mr, M. J. Savage (Labour—Auckland West), who is a member of the Auckland Hospital Board. "It is not such a simple thing as it appears on the surface. The Minister says there is need of it, that thore are indigent persons in various districts, and that boards should provido for them. "I agree that hospital boards, as long as we have them operating under existing conditions, should accept responsibility for maternity as well as every other kind of medical service, but seeing that service is already being provided in part at least by the Government itself, what reason is there for shifting responsibility from tho guardianship of the Government to tho shoulders of the local taxpayer, because I think that is tho major reason for tho change.

"It is not so much a matter of increasing the service to the indigent citizen and insisting upon the service being provided by the local hospital board as it is a matter of easing the Government of tho responsibility it accepts to-day—a responsibility that I must say it has not accepted to the extent it might have done," continued Mr. Savage. "Many years ago St. Helens hospitals were established. The people of the country were under the impression that they were established for the benefit of those who could not bear the cost of maternity and that in their cases the cost was largely to bo borne by the State, but in recent years there has been a definite move on the part of the Government to side-step that responsibility altogether." Reason for Establishment Speaking in a similar strain, Mr. W. E. Parry (Labour —Auckland Central) asked tho Minister to have the clause re-drafted so that the St. Helens hospital system would be safeguarded. St. Helens homes were established to assist tho working man's wife.

The Minister: They were established, firstly, to provide maternity homes where nurses could be trained, and, secondly, to enable working people to obtain service at a low rate.

Replying to the second reading, Mr. Young said thero was nothing sinister in the clause. Many boards provided maternity services, but others had questioned the right of the department to insist on such services being provided. Mr. Parry: But is not the clause wide enough to affect St. Helens homes? Mr. Young: That raises another issuo altogether. You would not close up a St. Helens hospital very easily. The public would want to know all about, it.