THE REGULATIONS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 5, 1 May 1939, Page 6

THE REGULATIONS

APPLICATIONS FOR BENEFITS RESPONSIBILITIES OF PATIENTS Tlic Maternity Benefits Regulations, published recently in, the Gazette, provide that women may apply for admission to maternity hospitals, or other institutions maintained by a hospital board, and also to licensed maternity homes. Application to doctors for their services may he made either by the woman concerned or by any other person! acting on her behalf, and the appli. cations shall be made to the medical practitioners listed in the health district in which the services are required. If the doctor is unable to provide the services auplied for he is to inform the applicant, and pending the making of other arrangements by the applicant it is his duty to provide any urgent medical services. Vpplications for the services of obstetric nurses are governed by similar regulations as in the case of doctors. Another pmv'sion is that Medical Officers of Health are required to make arrangements for a woman's admission to a hospital, or for the services of dcctors or nurses if the applicant is unable to make her own arrangements. Where any woman has been unable to make satisfactory arrangements on her own account under th -> foregoing regulations she may be

practitioner or nurse whose duty it is to render all necessary services, and it will be the woman's duty to inform the doctor or nurse whether she is willing to accept such services. In the case of assignment of nurses or doctors to attend to a woman the Medical Officer of Health is to select those available as will be least seriously inconvenienced. The duties of women claiming maternity benefits will be to sign any acknowledgment or application enquired, to undertake to pay any fees not payable out of the Social Security Fund and to conform to the rules of any hospital. Where she has engaged a doctor to provide mcdical services she is not to make any unreasonable demands upon his professional services, and except in case of emergency, is not to summon a doctor to visit her between 6 p.m. of any day to 8 a.m. on the following day, nor on any Saturday after 12 o'clock nor on any Sunday or public holiday. She must attend for treatment before or after her confinement at specified places and within specified hours, and if prevented by her condition, of health from attending the practitioner, she must notify liini, whenever possible not later than 10 a.m., that she requires him to visit her. If any woman wilfully and unreasonably fails to comply with liei obligations benefits paid to her may be recovered in a court of law. Women or their representatives are entitled to make complaints to the Medical Officer of Health in the. case of refusal or failure by doctors or nurses to provide benefits, or any culpable lack of skill or failure to provide care and attention. The schedule to the regulations sets out that fees payable to hospital boards and licensed maternity hospitals shall be £2 5s in respect of day or days of labour, and 12s fid a day for fourteen days after the b'rth of the child. Where patients are attended during their confinement by n medical officer employed bv the hospitnl board an extra, fve of * 2 wjr. be paid by the department.