STATE MEDICAL SERVICE.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16853, 5 June 1920, Page 10

STATE MEDICAL SERVICE.

V URGED BY DOCTORS. HEALTH DEPAETREEOT TO

P.SPOET.

The case for <i State hospital service was urged before, tho Hospitals Conference this week in a remit from the j Wliangarei Board, in the ■ following terms: —"That, owing to the inereas- j ing demands by tho public and sections 1 of the public for further extension of i h-pspital and nursing facilities, it is de-| sirablc that tho State should establish! a hospital sen-ice, so as to secure, some uniformity as regards salaries and con- : ditions of service for medical officers and nurses." _ j The mover, Dr. Fraser-llirst, the superintendent of the Whangarei Hospital, urged that tho development of medical science demanded a far better equipment of hospitals than existed to- j day. There should be a State service to give opportunity cf advancement to gifted doctors and nurses, and the special students of branches like bac- , i teriology, pathology, and physiotherapy. | The Department had made an excellenti beginning in the appointment of Col. I Wylie as Inspector of Hospitals. He' had been struck by the fact that there were too many patients in hospitals who ought not to be there—men who were convalescent, but for whom then} was no place to go. The hospital should go out to the people. Tho benefits of a State scheme would be'felt by the mcdi-' cal profession, not so much in the money they could make, for they could make far more in private practice, but mj superannuation. (Appfause.) The remit was characterised as an attempt by tho .medical profession to get j control of the whole of the hospital per-1 vice. The objection was to a proposal to provide wards where patients might receive attention from their own medical men. Dr. Valintinc pointed out that a system of State service had been approved by members of the British Medical Association in Dunedin. This was a surprise to him, because he felt that it had j Open regarded as anathema, and that j his own advocacy of a State medical ser-1 vice liad been disapproved. He would ' liko to soy that a State medical service, as outlined by Dr. Fraser-Hirst, would i be of great benefit to the people cf this j country. "We could have," he sftid, "a State medical service, and a very, efficient one, without nationalising the hospitals." Mr P. J. Nerheny; One would be impossible without the other., Mr J. W. McEwan (Wellington) said that Dr. Fraser-Hirst's proposals mot. with liis general acceptance. There • was an increasing tendency to lean more j and more on the Department, and that | < indicated they were travelling along tho lines of nationalisation of the hospitals. Everything pointed in one' direction. Men/who made a life study of these things were the men best qualified to speak. When it came to the vital questions effecting tho health of the community,, they must lean to the men who made public health their life study. Members of boards acquired a certain skill and facility in administrative matters, but on the big question they must ' defer. (Hear, hear.) Dt.. Mukgill (District Health Officer) said the proposal had originated from the_ difficulties of the chaos and con- j fusion which existed in many dtrec- ' lions at present. It did not come from 1 the medical profession for its own bene- ! fit. All the various tangles the Con- < ference had spent time in disintricating < would not have come into existence if : they had had a State modical service. • A delegate: It seems tr> me that 1 unionism is in the air. Wo have the ] Jockeys' Union and now tho Doctors' £ Union . (Laughter.) < Dr. Fraser-Hirst, in reply, said ho *' would be very pleased to accept an 5 amendment to refer tho matter to the Department to consider a general ( scheme and report to the boards. 1 The amendment was passed unani- ( mously.