NOT SUFFICIENT BEDS

Southland Times, Issue 23827, 26 May 1939, Page 8

NOT SUFFICIENT BEDS

CHRISTCHURCH AND INVERCARGILL GOVERNMENT MATERNITY SCHEME “Christchurch and Invercargill are the only two spots in New Zealand where we hayg an insufficiency ot beds,” declared Dr D. G. McMillan, M.P., in an electioneering address at Christchurch on Wednesday night. I am hoping that when the political feeling associated with the by-election has gone the Christchurch homes will come in, too. The Government cannot allow that to go on indefinitely. We are not pushing anybody at present but if that state of affairs persists for very long, action will have to be taken. Under Section 82 of the Social Security Act, the Government has the right to declare any area a special area ana suspend the benefits in that area. It might be as well for some of those sitting on the fence to read the Act and the provisions written into it.” Dr McMillan said that the medical profession was on strike in New Zealand. The position was simple and straightforward. The State was willing to pay the doctors a reasonable fee for services given. The doctors were refusing to accept it. They had said in their official statements that this service should be provided for those whose income was under £4 a week, and yet today those people were being denied that service which the doctors agreed was necessary, because the Government refused at one and the same time carte blanche to- charge wealthier people whatever fees they wished.

OPPONENTS’ COMPLAINT Labour’s opponents, the National Party and the British Medical Association, were complaining that the Government was not proposing to provide all the benefits on opening day, said Dr McMillan. The difference between them and the Government was that the Government had to act with a due sense of responsibility and with some appreciation of the practical and administrative difficulties to be overcome. Although the British Medical Association specifically stated in its own plan that it was not to be assumed that the association was asking for its scheme to be introduced all at once, it and its political bedfellows condemned the Government because it was introducing the scheme in stages. “We have begun with the maternity benefit because it is not a specially difficult one to introduce and it gave an opportunity to obtain administrative experience in a new field before embarking upon the much larger family doctor service,” said Dr McMillan. The response from obstetric nurses had been very good, as was that from the maternity homes. In some few areas, the maternity homes had not come in, but they were doing so fairly rapidly. In Wellington and Dunedin cities, and in the Taranaki and East Cape health districts, every private maternity home was included, while in other areas few homes were standing out. The people should clearly recognize that the State was prepared to pay all or a large portion of their private maternity home fees; and women would gain little satisfaction from the knowledge that the licensees of the outstanding homes were refusing to take the State’s money, a payment of upwards of £ll on their behalf.