SPECIALISTS FEES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 20 October 1942, Page 4

SPECIALISTS FEES

MEDICAL SERVICES

I'ROVISION lOR REM NDS

, I From Oui Own Parlianieiiuiy Reporter J Wellington, Tins Day. Appreciation of the fact that the j Government had acknowledged the place of peer in lists in the medical pro j less ion by authon. ing the refund of a j portion of the fees paid lo medical practitioners for specialist services, was expressed by the Leader of the Opposition (Mr S. G. Holland), in the j House of Representatives yesterday during the committee stage of the ! Finance Bill (No. 2). This was a point, j he said, which the Opposition had been j emphasising for a long time, and he ] was glad that at last its representations had been successful. I Ml- J. A. Leo iDoinoc.-Lal). Grey I Lynn i: "Could you use your persuasion on doctors and got them to give way?” Mr Holland said the doctors had been reasonable throughout and had been ready to co-operate in the scheme which they were prepared to work. 1 The Minister of Health, Mr A. H. Nordmeyer, explained that the provi- ; sion had been made in the Bill because 1 when specialists claimed they were » specialists patients had not been able ' to receive the 7s 6d refund in the past. - It did not follow that the services ren- ! dered by a specialist were services * which could be performed only by him or by another specialist, but because 1 of the law, the Health Department was . unable to pay refunds of 7s 6d in reL sped of their services. An important point was that a clause in the Bill was retrospective to Ist November last 1 year. The Leader of the Opposition had suggested an increased fee for ' specialists, but there was a difflc.ulty * in this connection. The medical pro--1 fession itself would find it exceedingly * difficult to give a list of specialists. 1 There were men who were outstanding a:.d who automatically put themselves L * 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 J had been decided to confine the payment s lo 7s 6d. That did not mean that the e Government was satisfied., but this 1 was all it could do about specialist ser- '• vices. The Government, when an ope portunity presented itself, would exc tend medical benefits along the lines c (,t providing a fuller specialist service than the Bill provided. The study of modern practice, said 0 the Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr 0 Parry), was in the direction of showe ing that the specialist was putting the r ' general practitioner out of practice. 0 “Although this clause is quite a 1 Nood one and progressive, it is nol j going to solve the big problem we have L ' in New Zealand at the present time.’* said Mrs Dreaver (Government). Ir 0 few cases had specialists in New Zea ‘ land the academic qualifications foi ; that title. Special attention would 1 have to be given to this particular clas? . service. These men were wanted 1 for the public generally, and not jusl for private practice. Mr Lee considered that maximum ’ fees should be fixed before a Govern- * ment subsidy was fixed. Prices ol shoes, of other goods and soldiers’ pay i ‘ were fixed. If people wanted protec- j tion from unsocial racketeering in war 1 time they wanted it in peace time also. Mr W. J. Poison (Nat.. Stratford) said y that the reward claimed by a specialist was sometimes unreasonable in comparison with the amount awarded tc J ‘in ordinary practitioner. Irritation of 1 the public had never been with the ordinary practitioner to the extent it had been with the specialist who often charged extortionate and extravagant fees. In many eases specialists / charges were reasonable. but he i, thought the State might have to dc ? something further—perhaps subsidise j o specialists’ fees—to make specialists ! r available to the ordinary citizen. j Mr Nordmeyer said that since the introduction of the Social Securitj s scheme the services of obstetrical spec i ialists had been made available tc - women and also radiological specialists In all of the major public hospitals the * services of specialists were freely avialable to both in-patients and out-pat- - ients. It was tremendously difficult tc fix a fee —if a fee for specialists was tc prevail—in the specialists’ field. It was likely that when a specialist service was introduced by the Government it would be along the lines ol providing specialist and consultanl r services with specialists on a salary basis, and their services would be i available to the public on a full-time -j basis.