BACKBLOCKS HEALTH SERVICE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23206, 28 November 1938, Page 10

BACKBLOCKS HEALTH SERVICE

An admirable example of voluntary service is being set by Stratford officers of the St. John Ambulance Brigade in devoting week-ends to training men in first-aid at a King Country sawmilling camp. The nature of the work involves the liability of frequent accidents, but the nearest doctor or nurse resides 45 miles away and, until the brigade volunteered, no knowledge or facilities existed for dealing with casualties. The ease of this settlement, too small to support professional medical service, is far from being unique in New Zealand, and the question arises as to what provision is being" made under the social security scheme to cover small isolated communities." After March 31 the responsibility will fall on the Government, which has promised a free and universal general practitioner Service. People in the backblocks will pay the same tax as those in the towns and so will establish a right to equal and ready attention. What is being done about organising an admittedly difficult department of health insurance? Doctors may not be willing to include distant settlements in their panels and there has been no report of an offer of special inducements to them, except mileage at 4s a mile one way. Half of this charge, however, is supposed to fall on the patient and, in the case of the King Country camp, would amount to £4 10s, a heavy addition to a so-called free and universal service, for which everyone will have already paid a levy on wages or income. Those who go into the backblocks deserve special consideration. How it is to be given raises many problems, and these can be commended to the Minister of Health for close study. Four months hence the people in the remotest settlements as well as in the more populous areas will be looking to the Government to fulfil its election pledges.