Doctors Should Have Thirty Patients a Day

Grey River Argus, 16 September 1948, Page 6

Doctors Should Have Thirty Patients a Day

P.A. WELLINGTON, Sept. 15 The committee on medical services in its report, said that while no abritrary limit could be placed on the number of patients a practitioner could see daily, thirty per day was the maximum for an efficient and conscientious practitioner. Discussing the recognition of specialists, the report says that the requirements for such recognition would be: (1) Adequate training in the speciality under recognised teachers; (2,possession of a higher qualification (if it exists) in that speciality; (3) Holding or having held a hospital, or other public appointment in the speciality, and (4) general recognition by the applicants’ colleagues of his special skill and experience. SPECIALISTS’ FEES FROM FUND The report says that the prevailing fees for specialists are £2 2s for a first consultation, and £1 Is for subsequent ones. The amount of benefit payable for specialists’ services will have to be decided with reference to (1) Making the service substantially free; (2) providing some deterrent against excessive demands on specialists. The committee suggests maximum payments form the fund of 30s for a first consultation and 15s for subsequent ones.

COST OF MEDICINES Discussing pharmaceutical benefits, the report says that the heavy annual increase in the cost to the fund of these benefits is due to:' (1) General medical services benefits have encouraged the public to resort to doctors for trivial complaints, with a resultant “patient pressure"' on the doctor, which can only be too easily satisfied by prescribing medicine, towards the cost of which neither the patient nor the doctor contributes. This financial' irresponsibility, in seeking medical advice and obtaining prescriptions, has undoubtedly led to a large measure of unnecessary and over-prescribing. ~ . Secondly, in recent years, the use of new and expensive drugs has become much more general. Thirdly, there have been many instances of unnecessary selection by doctors of the more expensive forms of medication, and there have likewise been instances of irresponsibility on the part of some practitioners in prescribing excessive quantities of drugs. Fourthly, there has been much unnecessary waste of medicine through loose methods of sanctioning repeats of prescriptions. Fifthly, the wholesale cost of drugs has increased. Sixthly, many items previously bought over the counter from chemists are now prescribed. 'lt is considered that the principle of part payment-by the patient should be adopted as the most effective measure to check the present trend. Doctors should also be asked to prescribe more economically, as far as possible, and disciplinary committees should deal with cases of over-prescribing.