Dominion Considered “Drug-ridden Country” Under Free Medicine

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26904, 16 October 1948, Page 7

Dominion Considered “Drug-ridden Country” Under Free Medicine

P.A. WELLINGTON, Oct. 15. Discussing the vote for medical and hospital pharmaceutical benefits in the House of Representatives to-day, Mr M. H. Oram (Oppn., Manawatu) suggested that while no one wished to be parsimonious the amount spent in pharmaceutical benefits could easily be reduced if there was a good system Of administration. The £1,600,000 on the estimates for pharmaceutical benefits amounted to about £ 1 per head, man woman and 1 child, he said. That sum, he considered, was a ridiculous amount to be spent for the purpose. He hoped the recommendations of the Medical Services Committee "would be put into operation by the Minister. It was only by obtaining the co-operation of the medical profession that efficient administration could be achieved. “Go into the people’s, pantries and you find them absolutely littered with medicine bottles,” he said. “We are a drugridden country.” :s '

He asserted that there should be no need to spend such a huge amount on drugs in a country such as New Zealand. Mr H. E. Combs (Govt., Onslow) said it was almost inevitable that the people should take advantage of the social security scheme. Children were taught that if there was something wrong with them which might lead to illness a doctor should be called as soon as possible. Naturally the parents availed themselves of the scheme. While the Government did not want to spend more money than was necessary it did not want to be niggardly or parsimonious. Dr A. M. Finlay (Govt., North Shore) considered that too much medicine was consumed and far too much money spent on medicines. He agreed that the administration had not been as strong as it might have been.' Doctors had to share some of the blame and the chemists must take some of the responsibility. So far as the excessive use of drugs was concerned, the doctors sometimes prescribed a supply which would last for months when only enough for a week’s treatment was needed.