Doctor Outspoken About Low Salaries

Chronicle (Levin), 14 December 1949, Page 6

Doctor Outspoken About Low Salaries

TIMARU, Dec. 33. The medical supei'intendent of thp Timaru Public Hospital, Dr J. C. McKenzie, protested agaihst the new range of salaries at a mee-ting today of tlve ►South Canterbury HpspitaJ Board. His protest was ' suppOi'flM b# board members. J?- ' Having . rec entH$/ ,/refciirned from abroad, Dr found that his salary lAHr b'^pn Slightly reduced and ;that Mf5saf^ical services to the hospital haE - been valued at £100 a year. Nearhy all hospital emplovees drew the same emolumeuts as they would draw in private. " lt was common knowledge that private practitioners had incoines of from £3000 to '£10,000 a year, even by junior men. Although he did not suggest that those in liospitals should reach such large j Iigures, the ditference between the two classes of men was too great. The partI time medical staff, making substantiai I incomes outside, were paid a further £350, £400 or £500 a year. It so happened that a large share of the surgical work in the Timaru Hospital feli to his lot and he felt that he had discliarged these obligations with some satisfaetion to the patieuts concerned and also the communtiy. Why tlien should he be rated by the Government as be ing worth one-quarter, one-third or one-lifth of what the part-time men ree,eived? This state '••of affairs, he con-ti-nued, applied ih yarykig degress to all full-time medical officers in New Zealand. It was high time that someone spoke out again on their behalf. Poi lowing the publieation of the salary scales, there had been numerous resignations. Dr Brooks, who recently resigned from the Timaru Hospital staff, had plenty of companv and the eiul was not yet. Some more noteworthy ones were in the offing "but why should we have to resign to get a fair deal?'-' he concluded.