DOCTOR'S FEES.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 846, 18 June 1910, Page 10

DOCTOR'S FEES.

Sir,—ln. your report of the cooks' and waiters' dispute this morning, I uoticcd the following* statement by a witness whose husband earned 355. a week:— . Two. of the children had been born in New Zealand. The medical expenses were «C 9. She got the inouey .by going out washing and cleaning prior to both occasions. , I always understood that tho high fees charged by doctors to their well-to-do patients wore uecessary, bccauso of the work that was done for nothing for persons. in less fortunato circumstances. Here is a family in which tho doctor's attendarico during the mother's confinement costs as much as the husband earns in 18 days. Judging by the size of the doctor's ,"bills one sees in the small bankruptcy cases in tho "Mercantile Gazette" week by week, the case quoted is by no means uncommon. It is difficult to believe that tho .old ideal of medicine as a self-saerilicing and humanitarian profession still exists among tho'doctors of to-day. In its place wo have tho trade of surgery which retains the old tradition of charging the wealthy more than •tho poor, and to it has added a new principle of charging everybody as much .possible.—l am, etc., ,X.