DOCTORS’ FEES

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 114, 27 February 1950, Page 2

DOCTORS’ FEES

CRITICISM OF B.M.A. POLICY REPLY BY CHAIRMAN OF COUNCIL (P.A.) WELLINGTON, February 26. A denial that any decisions of the New Zealand branch of the council of the British Medical Association had endangered the honour or freedom of the medical profession was made to-night by the council’s chairman, Dr. J. O. Mercer. He was replying to assertions made by Sir James Elliott, of Wellington, in a letter to the editor of the “New Zealand Medical Journal” under the heading “The B.M.A. Crisis.”

Sir James Elliott said that on the excuse of expediency the New Zealand branch had abandoned its former policy on the method of payment of doctors’ fees and was failing to maintain the freedom and honour of the profession. “On behalf of the council,” said Dr. Mercer, “I would deny that any of our decisions so closely and strongly debated have endangered the honour or freedom of the medical profession, nor can I concede that the present state of affairs in any way constitutes a crisis.”

„ It was regrettable that the necessity to answer Sir James Elliott ipubicly had arisen, particularly when the important and undetermined issues touched on by him were set down for early discussion between the Government and the B.M.A.

“Negotiations with the previous Government which Sir James Elliott attacks were contacts by the elected fepresentatives of the profession to end a situation which was and still is deteriorating the standards of practice in this country,” Dr. Mercer said. “The elected representatives of the B.M.A. will pursue our fundamental policy—to achieve a form of medical practice in which the individual doctor retaifis full responsibility for the care of his patients, with freedom of action and judgments.”