SOCIAL SECURITY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23426, 16 August 1939, Page 16

SOCIAL SECURITY

FREE PHARMACY PLAN COMMENCEMENT INDEFINITE MEDICAL SERVICE AWAITED No indication, as to when pharmaceutical benefits will become available under the social security scheme lias vet been given. An item of £50,000 in the. Estimates for this branch of the proposed services is considered inadequate to finance the plan, and it is also thought that it is unlikely to operate until the free general practitioner service is introduced The Act implies that medicines, drugs, materials and appliances are to he supplied to a person on the order of any medical practitioner in the eoursc of providing medical, or other benefits. It has been officially suggested that to obtain pharmaceutical benefits the doctor would give the patient two copies of the prescription and the patient would present them to the listed chemist ho has chosen. One copy would then be sent by the chemist to the district office, with a covering invoice as the basis of his claims on tho fund and the other copy retained. Fixing of Prices In a circular forwarded to medical practitioners in April, the Minister ol Health, the Hon. P. Fraser, explained that it was proposed to establish pricing bureaux in the main centres, and their functions would include the pricing and checking of the prescriptions and invoices and the passing for payment of the chemists' accounts. The Social Security Estimates presented to Parliament on August 1, included an item of for pharmaceutical benefits, this aggregate sum comprising £46,250 to meet the charges of drugs and other needs supplied by chemists, and amounts of £2500 and £]2so for similar services performed by medical practitioners and institutions respectively. Five Hundred Pharmacies The purpose of this vote is not accurately' known, and it was pointed cut yesterday that, with about 500 pharmacies operating in the Dominion, the provision of £46.250 was obviously inadequate to reimburse chemists if they were required to undertake the full free service that was envisaged. Auckland chemists are stated to have received no indication as to when the service is likely to be introduced, but several expressed the opinion yesterday that, in view of the terms of the Act and'the general conception of the scheme, it seemed that the proposed general practitioner service would necessarily precede the start of the pharmaceutical benefits.