PROPOSED HOSPITAL CHANGES IN MELBOURNE.

Evening Star, Issue 3426, 13 February 1874, Page 3

PROPOSED HOSPITAL CHANGES IN MELBOURNE.

In. spite of all the denunciations by medical scientists of the pretensions of homoeopathy, the. followers of Hahnemann have increased and multiplied in Victoria, not perhaps very rapidly, but certainly very steadily, and for some time past there has been a demand for a homoeopathic ward in the Melbourne Hospital. At the annual meeting of the subscribers, lately, a motion was submitted to this effect“ That in the opinion of the subscribers the time has arrived when provision should be made in the Melbourne Hospital for the treatment of patients according to the system of medicine known as homoeopathy, and that the committee be instructed to make such arrangements as are necessary for giving effect to this opinion.” Some time ago a memorial was sent to the committee urging the same course, but as they say in their report, “ it was evident that as medical officers are elected by the contributors, the committee were powerless to dictate or oiler an opinion as to the system of treatment which any practitioner might adopt; but should it be decided to increase the present staff of physicians, all duly qualified practitioners could claim to offer themselves as candidates, and the intentions of the memorialists might he secured.” Tinder these circumstances the committee suggested that the matter should be left in abeyance until the expiry of the term of office of the present members of the staff,- when a general election would be held, and facilities would be presented for the introduction of the proposed change, that is, of course, if the subscribers choose to elect a homoeopathic physician. The meeting adopted the suggestion of the committee, and rejected the motion above quoted. There was another change suggested at the meeting which involves a principle, and is deserving of consideration in all our Colonial centres of population, that of receiving paying patients. A good deal was said in its favor, bqt it has this anomalous feature about it, that while patients paid for their treatment, the medical

men who treated them would still go unpaid. If our hospitals were conducted by means of a paid staff of medical officers, this objection would not of couse exist; but it is not unnatural that the profession should object to a public institution depriving them of their customers, and perhaps requiring them to do the work for nothing at the hospital for which they would have received payment outside—the hospital taking the fees for their labor. The question, however, is not settled, and the proposed change seems to firjid favor with the subscribers.