HEALTH OF THE PEOPLE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22046, 28 February 1935, Page 13

HEALTH OF THE PEOPLE

IDEAS FOR REFORM INFLUENCE OF FILMS INSURANCE PI.AN SUPPORTED [BY TELEGRAPH—PRESS ASSOCIATION] TIMARU, Wednesday Ideas for health reform in the Dominion were advanced by Dr. H. D. Robertson, of Wanganui, when speaking at the Rotary Conference to-day. The Dominion, he said, was fortunate in being so well nerved medically, the Health Department being very efficient and there being excellent hospitals and Plunket Societies. After quoting the findings of the Australian Medical Congress, Dr. Robertson referred to the results of the commission of inquiry into the value of the Plunket Society's pre-natal and post-natal care of mothers and children, and urged Rotarians to interest themselves in the society's work. "I am in hearty agreement with the commission, when it dwells at length on the way the young are allowed to go to pictures, as very few films are suitable for the facile minds of the adolescent. Films contribute to precocious sexuality and to weakening the powers of inhibition and self-control in other directions," he said. Dr. Robertson quoted cases illustrating the cost to the taxpayer for the maintenance of families of feebleminded people, and declared that these were causing grave concern to hospital boards and welfare officers. He then referred briefly to the seventeen recommendations of the commission, and added: "IB is a great problem and apt to increase as the years progress." The speaker expressed the opinion that a national insurance health scheme for' New Zealand, based on British medical service, would become an established fact before many • Parliaments had run their course. He referred to the national scheme advocated by the Hospital Boards' Association, and explained provisions which had been in force in Britain since 1911, which applied to all persons between the ages of 16 and 60 employed in manual labour, and all other persons whose wages or salaries did not exceed £250 a year.

Medical benefits under the National Insurance Act were deficient in certain respects, inasmuch as there was no provision for hospital treatment, for consultation in obscure cases, for cases requiring specialist attention, for pathological and physical aids and for X-ray diagnosis of disease. He was convinced that a similar scheme, with the weakness eliminated, would be established in New Zealand before long.