EXISTING MEDICAL SERVICES

Southland Times, Issue 23297, 6 September 1937, Page 13

EXISTING MEDICAL SERVICES

CRITICISM OF HOSPITAL SUPERINTENDENT (United Press Association) AUCKLAND, September 4. [ Stating that the present medical, services to the people of the Dominion were totally inadequate, Dr G. M. Smith, medical superintendent of the . Rawene Hospital, North Auckland, made a frank criticism to the members ’ of the W.E.A. last evening of the ex- ‘ isting system. An inherent fault, he said, was the relationship between the doctor and patient. There was the pos- • sibility of a doctor thinking more of thp ’ financial return than of the health of his patient. Dr Smith made a plea for economic security for the medical profession. He suggested that the medical profession, in exchange for that economic security, should give its services to the Government and submit them to audit. The profession should exercise on its members a discipline which would demand results. “If it fails there is nothing else for it but turning medical men into Government officials,” he said. Dr Smith spoke of the administrative aspect of a health scheme and suggested the appointment from overseas of a director of curative medicine and another of preventive medicine. He also advocated the development of a system of clinics in the out-patient departments of public hospitals as well as the complete nationalization of hospitals as the first step in a health service.