THE HON. MR. BARR AND THE DOCTORS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2181, 10 September 1907, Page 2

THE HON. MR. BARR AND THE DOCTORS.

A DEFENCE OF THE PROFESSION. ARE FEES TOO LARGE FOR THE WORKERS ? CHIEF HEALTH OFFICER GIVES HIS VIEWS. (Special to Times.) WELLINGTON, September J. The remarks made by the Hon. Mr. Barr in tho Legislative Council tile other day on tho curse of commercialism are very generally condemned here. Mr. D. McLaren, a Labor representative, does not hold at all with Mr. Bair's ideas. li e looks upon tho profession as one of the highest and most honorable x >r ofessions in existence, and his plea would be rather that the workers should have such a proportion of the wealth as would enable them to pay good fees to those whom they have to call in for medical attendance. “There may be,” lie said, “so-ino individuals in tho medical profession who place the matter of fees before their nigh art, but there are others certainly who are more disposed to Took at the functions which they have to perform from a broadly humanitarian standpoint. Iu any case the true solution is to make such a profession as this, and all other high trades and callings, independent of the gross materialistic spirit which has taken hold of our age.” Mr. MclHren, however, thinks the wages of the individual worker are too low altogether. . " .

Dr. Mason, in an interview with a “Post” reporter, said: “I know of no class of men who do anything like as much gratuitous work as the medical profession. It has to be remembered, of course, that a medical man, like every other worker, has got to pay bills. He has to keep his wife and family, and of necessity must have somo returns for his services. It may be that here and there throughout the world oases occur of refusal to visit a sick person because he has no money, but I aim perfectly certain that these cases are very few. Speaking generally, I should say that medical men in many cases will only get some 50 per cent, of what they earned. A thing that is sometimes forgotten is that the doctor, unlike the members of any other profession or trade, has probably done more to bring about a state of matters which, if carried to their full extent, would leave him, like Othello, without an occupation. The initial steps in all reforms making for the health of the community have been taken by medical men.” “What do you say with respect to fees and the ability of the working man to pay them?” - “Although,” replied Dr. Mason, “the nominal fee may seem to some people considerable, I am certain very few working men need go in fear and trembling to a medioal man and say, ‘I am sorry I cannot pay all this.’ In the majority of instances I am certain the medical man will say, that is, if the patient is a decent sort of individual, ‘Let it stand over, and if ever you can pay. you can let me have it,’ or ‘What can you pay towards it?’ and he will accept, whatever the man sli.ys. This is done regularly.” “Then,” added the doctor, “you have got to remember that the hospitals throughout the colony are, with the exception of the resident medical man, officered entirely by medical men who receive no payment whatever. A surgeon attached to a big hospital where many operations are performed will, of necessity,-have to devote some two or three hours a day to that work. For this he receives no reward. There should be, to my mind, arrangements made for the proper care of the sick poor. The working man can compound for medical attendance if lie becomes a member of a benefit society, and for those who are not-members of a friendly society-, and mho are sick and who; have no money, there should be a medical officer appointed officially to attend them. As it is, in the absence of this parochial officer those ' services are practically discharged by the medical men in the several cities.” •

“What do you think of the suggestion to appoint medical men to attend to tlie poor or to practise in country districts?”

“At the present time,” said the Chief Medical Officer, “the Government is paying subsidies towards-the salaries of medical men in districts where the population is so sparse as to make it difficult for the inhabitants to pay a suitable salary, - and with regard to the so-called parochial medical man, in. some of the large cities of New Zealand they hi.ve already appointed such officers. In Christchurch the Benevolent Trustees have a medical officer, and in Auckland. I believe, that is also the case.” “With respect to the working man the case where the shoe pinches hardest is very often where the breadwinner is laid up through illness. The cost incidental to sickness apart- altogether from the medical man’s fee may be considerable, and if a patient is not a member of a friendly society it takes him a long time to make up the leeway which liis illness has occasioned, and sometimes the fee which very often lie does not- pay looks large. The advice which the old Scotch surgeon used occasionally to give to his apprentice has a true commercial ring, viz., ‘Aye get the feo when tho tears in the e’e.’ That may savour of commercialism, but it is an undoubted fact which any medical man can support that the value of a medical man’s services varies inversely to the distance in time of the illness. Tlio common supplication of the heartbroken woman is, ‘Don’t- spare 'any expense, doctor, don’t think of that.’’ That is an answer to the doctor’s statement that there is no need to come three or four times a day to see her husband. Her remark when the bill comes on and the husband is better is slightly different.”