SOCIAL SECURITY

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24554, 9 April 1943, Page 4

SOCIAL SECURITY

DOCTOR'S CRITICISM DEFICIENCIES IN SYSTEM A "mortal weakness" in the present system of medical benefits under the Social Security Act, in that none of the revenue is devoted to teaching or research, is claimed by Mr. Douglas Robb, of Auckland, in an article in the New Zealand Medical Journal, advocating an authoritative survey of medical services in the Dominion.

| "-No thougl.it lias been given or provision made for the life of medicine," I Mr. Robb writes. 'The crazy I assumption was made that drugs and ! doctors were there, and that all that had to be done was to distribute them and their services. No one asked if they we're already of good quality, or whether they could be improved, and if so, how. No one wondered what steps 1 would be necessary to ensure that the I good product was kept in good order, j and perhaps made better with time. "To do all these things, it would have been necessary to consider all matters relating to the selection and training of medical students, and also to take thought for the qualified man. Arrangements for the proper training of each man for his chosen work would need completion by insisting on regular periods of post-graduate study, and the provision of facilities for this, together with leave for the man to get it. "Under maternity and pharmaceutical benefits, a percentage of the money should have been earmarked for teaching and research in each subject. A pharmacological institute where native New Zealand products could be investigated, and reliable arrangements made for the local manufacture or importation of new substances with accurate standardisation and assurance of efficacy, is a clamant need. "Such things are not luxuries, they are necessities, if our fellow men are to get the best help from modern medicine. and surely we cannot be content with less." PAPER MONEY ISSUED TROOPS IN MIDDLE EAST (0.C.) HAMILTON, Thursday A new type of bank note has been issued by the British military authorities in the Middle East. A copy of the note has been received from a New Zealand soldier, who writes as follows: — "We have been issued with a new type of currency for use in enemyoccupied territory. Instead of the Egyptian piastre, we have notes of £l, 10s, os, 2s 6d, and Is, of a special type. We find it rather strange after working so long with the old 'ackers' (piastres). ] expect there will be a few arguments in the shops in Tripoli in persuading the locals that our money is good. They had better not argue too much, or they will find that we will be helping ourselves." TRADE WITH AMERICA A decision to ask the Hon. W. Nash, Now Zealand Minister to Washington, whether New Zealand was among the three countries with which the United States was recently reported to be negotiating trade agreements, was reached by the Bureau of Importers at the annual meeting yesterday. The mover of the resolution, Mr. Cain or Jackson, regretted existing tariff barriers as obstacles to fuller and freer trade between (lie two countries. The policy of concluding reciprocal trade agreements al present being pursued by the United States, he said, was in preparation for Ihe fulfilment of ideals set out in the Atlantic Charter.