MEDICAL SERVICE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19332, 24 May 1937, Page 12

MEDICAL SERVICE

NATIONAL SCHEME COMMENT ON PROPOSALS B.M.A. PRESIDENT'S VIEWS (Per Press Association.) CHRISTCHUBCH, last night. "We feel that the deficiencies in medical practice should be dealt with first and foremost, and that a start should be mad© by giving a complete and highly efficient service to those in the Dominion who are unable to procure the service at present, namely, tlr. indigent,"."said Dr. T. P. M- Stout, president of the New Zealand branch of the British Medical Association, in a statement on Saturday about the proposals for the national health insurance scheme. Dr. Stout said that while he was giving his personal views, his statement could be taken as representing the general views of the association. He urged that any scheme should be approaches cautiously, and he claimed that a start with the class of people he suggested would allow evolutionary development, with possible additions of any other sections of the people us it grew. . "Real Need, of the .Country" ."The institution of the scheme to cover those who, though able to procure satisfactory medical attention, are unable to make adequate financial provision for it when a prolonged illness occurs, would be held to bo desirable, by ."many,, and .this/section, of the community possibly could be brought into the scheme when the machinery has been got into smooth working order, and when more time for study of our complicated problem has been given. "Nothing, however, should stand in the way of provision, in the first place, ■of a full and complete service for those who are unable to procure it now. That is the real need of the country at present, and it should be met as the first step ia any national health insurance scheme.

"The preservation and conservation of the high standard of medical practice and of the high academic and ethical standard of the profession, is of the utmost importance. Jf anything is/done to lower this standard by deterioration of the standard of practice, or by the ir|J&oductjon of an inferior type of.practitioner, however theoretically ideal a scheme may he, it will inevitably lead, whatever the efficiency of the administration to a. poor type of medical service to the community. Ideals of the Government "We are convinced of the high ideals of the Government in dealing with this problem, and feel sure that the Government appreciates the difficulty of the problems and need for cautious approach so as to preserve all that is good in our present medical service, and to ensure that thoge who are unable to benefit from a satisfactory medical service should have that service at their disposal. "The profession is ever willing to be of the utmost assistance to every section of the community in providing the best medical service possible. It is, however, anxious that no precipitate action should be taken without due study and consideration, which may, irretrievably, damage the best elements of a liighlytraihed profession with the tradition of centuries of development and service to mankind behind it." •