Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 38, Number 13. 12th June 1975
Changes
Changes
Chapters VIII (The Need for Change) and IX (Principles for [ unclear: Chang] cover a broad area of principles in [ unclear: w] detail. Some comments are very [ unclear: pen] tive: 'the fragmented pattern of health care delivery means that NZ lacks a national health service', 'middle class areas tend to be relatively over [ unclear: provide] with general practitioners, while [ unclear: some] other areas are often characterised [ unclear: by] a shortage', 'in certain areas, it is [ unclear: ai] impossible to secure the services of [ unclear: a] general practitioner, even in an [ unclear: emer] the low state of public specialist [ unclear: serv] and of public health programmes. [ unclear: 'pa] chial planning', 'the absence of [ unclear: co-op] ated planning', and 'administrative [ unclear: con] fusion' add to the sorry picture.
To attack these problems, the [ unclear: gov] ernment proposes three principles:-that the community has a [ unclear: responsible] for health care, that the [ unclear: administration] should be connected with sources of [ unclear: a] ce, that health services should be [ unclear: ade] tered to 'be capable of meeting the [ unclear: d] needs of the community'. From [ unclear: here] in the emphasis is very clearly on [ unclear: adr] tration and reorganisation. The [ unclear: prop] plan is in diagram 1.
This diagram is reasonably [ unclear: sim] to understand — or at least it seems [ unclear: t] way. It must be more complicated [ unclear: f] thought, because it takes six chapters 272 paragraphs and 72 pages to [ unclear: des] it. Admittedly I got bored half-way and started skipping things, but most the details seemed 1 trivial and 2 [ unclear: bor] and 3 missing major points. The [ unclear: g] drift of the proposals is greater [ unclear: Gover] ment control over what happens to [ unclear: c] (in this order) value for money and [ unclear: r] ional planning approach to health [ unclear: care]
One could spend a lot of [ unclear: time] criticising the details of the [ unclear: proposals] such as the lack of scope for medical staff representatives on the various Health authority committees, but [ unclear: me] of these areas will undoubtedly be covered by the groups concerned in their submissions. As far as the general public is concerned probably the most important sector is the provision of general practitioners, and the relationships between private and public health care.