Hospital Medical Staff

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 191, 9 May 1940, Page 11

Hospital Medical Staff

Sir,—The reports of the decision of the Wellington Hospital Board in connexion with the amount to be paid the medical staff under the new scheme of part-time service do not really emphasize what is one of the really outrageous portions of the proposal. At’ present (and in the past) the doctors have served the public hospital in honorary capacities, and -Wellington has at present 45 working under this system. In addition, there are at present 14 doctors who give part-time service and are paid accordingly from £lOO to £5OO per annum. In February last, in agreeing that this system of staffing was obsolete, the board decided by 9 votes to 6 to institute a part-time system in place of the honorary system, the minority advocating a full-time paid staff wherever the amount of work warranted sueh service. 'The question of salaries and number of hours to be worked was deferred, and this matter was brought before the last meeting of the board. The proposal was to pay 39 part-time officers an amount of £13,200 per annum for a total of 13,008 hours’ work. Fifteen of these men would work three sessions of three hours a week, i.e., nine hours a week, for which payment of £lO/10/- is to be made, or £5OO per annum with a month’s holiday on pay. It might be mentioned by way of comparison, that the board already has 10 full-time medical men oni ts staff, some of whom are as senior as any who will be appointed, and they receive from £750 to £ll5O per annum, with the director of clinical services receiving £l5OO, and they are “ou call” at certain times, work more than a forty-hour week, and are precluded from receiving outside employment. To pay part-time men from 50 per eent to 100 per cent, extra is extravagant and unfair.—l am, etc., A. H. CARMAN. Wellington, May 7,