HOSPITAL ARRANGEMENTS.

Evening Star, Issue 2910, 17 June 1872, Page 3

HOSPITAL ARRANGEMENTS.

The attention of the readers of the Lancet has on more than one occasion been called by correspondents to the exclusive jealousy which appears to govern the arrangements of some provincial hospitals as to the admission of neighboring practitioners to witness the performance of surgical operations We are informed that tins jealousy leads to the exclusion of gentlemen who would gladly keep up their knowledge of surgery, or possibly add to it, by witnessing the practice ot those who may be presumed to have a more exact acquaintance with the subject, or at least enjoy a more extended field for its practice 5 and, extraordinary as it may appear to those who know how London hospitals are open to the whole profession, some country surgeons appear anxious to perform their good deeds in secret, and refuse to allow their brethren to be witnesses of their operations in the theatre or treatment in the W Some forty years ago the same absurd and dangerous tendency to shun the light of public observation prevailed in some of the London hospitals ; and it was not until the late Mr Wakely fearlessly exposed the wrong thus inflicted on the profession and on the patients that the right to witness and report the proceedings in the public operating theatres of ' our hospitals was yielded by •ome of the older institutions. We are quite aware that the remedy applied was a sharp one, and that a style of comment was adopted which would hardly be suited to these modern and more refined times. But the work was done, and its fruit is seen in tne absolute freedom from restriction witnessed in all London hospitals at the present day. The only grounds on which we can imagine the surgeon of any hospital to wish to exclude professional witnesses of his practices are, (1) a desire to keep certain methods of treatment to himself, or (2) fear of criticism from conscious incompetence. As regards the first, we can only say that any surgeon who is not prepared to give his brethern the results of any treatment he may practise, or who may employ remedies of a secret nature, is acting neither more nor less than like a charlatan ; he would be justly coodemned in professional circles, and to him the care of the poor ought not to be entrusted. If afraid of friendly comment from pure nervousness, the operator is to be pitied ; but he may rest assured that the presence of many spectators is less trying than the occasional and unexpected attendance of a single friend. If, however, from incompetence, an operator fears unfriendly criticism, and Ins own peace of mind, the sooner he retires from a scene for which he is unfitted the better. If the governors of all provincial hospitals were aware of the safeguard to the wellbeing of the charity afforded by the admission of professional visitors, both in checking incompetence and in stimulating !tho zeal of the many highly competent medical officers they fortunately possess, we feel sure they would enact a few wholesome rules on the subject which would set at rest, once and for ever, the question of exclusiveness which is continually cropping up .—Lancet.