SPECIALIST FEES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20919, 20 October 1942, Page 2

SPECIALIST FEES

STATE SUBSIDY PROPOSAL WELCOMED DISCUSSION IN HOUSE (P.R.) WELLINGTON, this day. Appreciation of the fact that the Government had acknowledged the place of specialists in the medical profession by authorising a refund of a portion of the fees paid to medical practitioners for soecialist services was expressed bv the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. S. G. Holland, in the House of Representatives yesterday during the committee stage of the Finance Bill (No. 2). This was -a point, he said, which the Opposition had been emphasising for a long time, and he was glad that at last its representations had been successful. Mr. J. A. Lee (Dem. Lab.. Grey Lynn): Could you use your persuasion on the doctors and get them to give way? Mr. Holland said that the doctors had been reasonable throughout and had been ready to co-operate in a scheme t.hpv were nrennred to work. The Minister of Health, the Hon. A. H. Nordmever. explained that the provision had been made in the bill because when specialists claimed that they were specialists, patients had not been able to receive the 7s 6d refund in the past. It did not follow that the services rendered by a specialist were services which could be performed only by him or bv another specialist, hut. because of the law the Heal+h Department was unable to pay refunds | of 7s fid in resnect of their services. An important point was that the clause in the bill was retrospective to November 1 last year. Fuller Service Later The Loader of the Opposition had suggested an increased fee ; for specialists;: but there .was, a difficulty in this connection," said the Minister." The medical profession itself would find it exceedingly difficult to give a list of specialists. There were men who were outstanding and who automatically put themselves into the specialist class, and there were others who were border-line cases. There were others, again, who claimed to be specialists and who had little claim to the title. In the meantime it had been decided to confine the payment to 7s Pd. That did not mean that the Government was satisfied that, this was all it could do about specialist services. The Government, when an opportunity presented itself, would extend medical benefits along the lines of providing fuller specialist" service than' the bill provided. The study of modern practice, said the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Hon. W. E. Parry, was in the direction of showing that the specialist was putting the general practitioner out of practice. “Although this clause is quite a good one and progressive, it is not going to solve the big problem we have in New zgaland at the present time,” said Mrs. M. M. Dreavgr (Lab.. Waitemata). In few casgS had specialists in New Zealand the academic qualifications for that title. Special attention would have to be given to this particular clhss of service. These men were wanted for the public generally and not just fob private practice. Maximum Fee Wanted Mr. Lee considered that maximum fees should be fixed before the Government subsidy was fixed. The prices of shoes, of other goods, and of soldiers’ pay were fixed. If people wanted protection from unsocial racketeering in war-time they wanted it. in*peace-time also. • Mr: W. J: Poison (Nat.. Stratford) said that the reward claimed by a specialist was sometimes unreasonable in comparison with the amount awarded to an ordinary practitioner. The irritation of the public had never been with the ordinary practitioner to the extent that it had been with the soecialist, who' often charged extortionate and extravagant fees. In many cases specialist charges were reasonable, but he thought that the State might have to do something further—perhaps subsidise specialists’ fees —to make specialists available to the" ordinary citizen. ' •

Mr. Nordmeyer said that since the introduction of the social security scheme the services of obstetrical specialists had been made available to women and also-radiological specialists in all of the major nublic hospitals. The services of specialists were freely available to both in-patients and outpatients. It was tremendously difficult to fix a fee —if a fee for specialists was to prevail—in the specialists’ field. It was likely that when a specialist service was introduced by the Government it would be along the lilies of providing specialist and consultant services with specialists on a salary basis and their services made available to the public on a full-time bapis.