On this day in 1971, Canberra doctors had agreed that "under no circumstances" would they practise "within the confines" of community health centres.
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At a meeting, the the doctors accepted a recommendation from the NSW branch of the Australian Medical Association that "it is considered to be detrimental to the general practitioners and the community for general practitioners to be grouped within one building or groups of buildings in one area".
A motion calling for total rejection of the health centre concept was narrowly defeated.
"The independence an dignity of the general practitioner can only be properly maintained by being housed separately," the NSW branch warned.
Some Canberra doctors had increased their fees for surgery consultations to $4. The new common fee for a surgery consultation in NSW and the ACT would be $3.80 compared with $3.50, and the total Commonwealth and medical fund rebate would be $3.
