A Reward for Minimal Care

Here's an innovative way of dealing with a shortage of a particular medical expertise.

New Zealand hospitals scrapped an offer Thursday of a supermarket voucher for mothers who leave the maternity ward within six hours of giving birth, after critics slammed it as bribing impoverished women to forgo health care.

The Capital and Coast District Health Board, which runs public hospitals in the capital, Wellington, initially said its offer of a supermarket voucher worth $77 would apply during December and January as a way to combat a shortage of midwives.

But the board was forced to back down within hours of making the proposal public, following an outcry from midwives, interest groups and others.

“It is clear that some people see this as a potential form of bribery, and I acknowledge that is not acceptable,” Wellington Hospital chief executive Margot Mains said in a statement. “I have today instructed staff to scrap the supermarket voucher part of our management strategy.”

Governments with socialized medicine save money by rationing service...which is why for instance the waiting lists for certain specialists, surgeries, etc. can be rather long in Canada, the VA system, etc.  Waiting lists and childbirth don't go together very well...and the Wellington area has a 30 percent shortage of midwives.  Other New Zealand hospitals have been resorting to using untrained assistants to help with deliveries.

Health Minister David Cunliffe said the Wellington scheme was one health provider's response to a staff shortage, and that it was not government policy.

Healthy mothers and babies usually are discharged after 48 hours in a New Zealand hospital ward.

In a straight-forward birth of a healthy baby, 48 hours may not be necessary.  Inducing births unnecessarily can certainly help with some of the scheduling issues...I've heard of that being done here in the U.S.