MEDICAL SERVICES

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24083, 30 September 1941, Page 4

MEDICAL SERVICES

Sir, —Your correspondent C. J. A. Griffin says in his letter on medical services:—Point 1: Accepting J. Bonner's figure of 20,000,000 being on the panel in England that applies to less than half the population. But why accept itP Only the lower paid workers, those earning less than a certain sum, are on the panel, not their wives or children, and even with all the additional women working in wartime there cannot bo anything like 20,000,000 lower-paid workers, surely. Point 4 in this correspondent's letter, that doctors in Britain who accept panel patients can have a private practice is perfectly true. In fact I was told by a Home doctor that having a worker on his panel list usually meant that ho had that worker's wife and children in his private practice as paying patients. D. Griffiths. Sir, —While the war is still waging between the New Zealand doctors and the Government I wish to join with .J. Bonner in recommending the "panel" system which Lloyd George, after a terrific struggle, brought into force in Great Britain. I was a beneficiary under the scheme for seven years and know full well what a boon and relief it has proved to the wage-earners of that country. 1 have been in this fair land of New Zealand for only two years, but have already met scores of working people who are putting tip with pain and illness because they cannot afford the doctor's fees nor the time to .sit. for hours in the waiting room of a public hospital until a doctor condescends to see them. If the New Zealand doctors honestly have the health of the ■'public at heart, they will co-operate with_ the Government in bringing into being the same scheme &a the Mother Country has adopted, E. Young.