Page 4 Advertisements Column 1

Manawatu Herald, 30 May 1896, Page 4

SICK AND TAKEN IN. HELPLES3 HOTCL GUESTS FLEECED BY 810 DOCTORS' FEES. Ma:iy !loti>l* In tho lilg Metropolis and In Chlmgn Are In League With Conscience- '• Vfiiibnrii of the Medical Profession ■^loney. • 'lotelln the city nowadays resident in the building. t'x 1 hnt(>] in oiie of V: n . .it 1 pro . lbtoa wiiu -uui- '■:■-■ < concerned. The idea ■v;» r within instant call is ■ u\ : i< ii an excellent ono, but it ha. "f late been subject ' " ''"■ ■•"". j.'.i') fiwt liaa got out > ; .o "<■'•*■ ' -.tel physicians make 'I , „ „1,1.! ot- thfl v. ' ivy ox tortionate n w ' ■•• th-:ir position t<s i ta , - n^est, w ho ohiir-es for the treatment ot » v^ iU havo been ltickleii enough to **. among Btrangers. Coroplaint is made that far from being a blessing to tho guest, the ease with ■which medical attendance can be secured haa in sv< h cases become a source of genuine dread to visitors to the big city who have to stop at hotels. -The guests fear even a trifling illness while in the hotel, because if they make the fact known that they want to see a doctor they will be charged a fee out of ail proportion to the service rendered by the doctor, whose chief claim to patronage ia that ho is "always near at hand." Complaint has been made against the doctors' charges in two of the best known hotels in tho town to a prominent consulting physician. "When I was taken sick at the hotel tho other night," ono of the complainants said, "I asked the head clerk to send me Dr. B." "Dr. H.r said the clerk in seeming astonishment. "I never heard of him. But we have a competent physician in the hotel whom L will fend to your room." The hotel doctor did go to the room in response to the request of the clerk. He made several visits during the night, although the guests didn't want and didn't need more than one visit. A fee of $10 was charged in the bill, and the guests had to pay it. Subsequent investigation made it clear that the reason for this high fee was that the hotel physician had made an arrangement with the hotel proprietor by which the latter got a third of this big fee. The guests also learned that tliis sharing of the fee had been the custom at the hotel for a very long time, and that guests submitted to it rather than have any wranglo at the clerk's desk over charges, a thing that self respecting persons naturally dread and will avoid even whero the charge is a manifest imposition. The abuse has recently attracted the attention of the professionals, who do not practice in hotelß, and has evoked an earnest protest ai>'' a demand for reform. r icil Record, under the head* p.nd Hotels," handles the vigorous style: . v of sensitive morals, and li only every day semi* • ; 1 Ik) shocked if the whole a i ous of doctors to hotels v .i. '.'here is a fashionable [ 1.3 to. n where the hotel ] a &; a visit, and there is the b l . X beliovimj that the hnatli ; ;;.:,:.o; j;-ots .;..J of it. It is stated o.i k^uJ authority that in many hotels tl-.<; >flJcial doctor ia obliged to give up from oae-ilf th to one-third of his charges to the business management. People who are taken ill in hotels must have a doctor and are not deposed to question •bout terms. They do not find ont what these are until they settle the bill, and then expostulation is too late." : It is only just to say that all the hotel physicians aro not parties to this mean sort of swindling. Many of them are physicians of high repute who live at the fiotela and pay for their board and lodg* Jngsthe Bame a* any other guests and !i*ve a regular and legitimate schedule ft charges bated upon the market value pf their professional services. In cases •where there is a "divvy" between the ooctorand the hotel the physician gets jhi* lodgings and board at a reduced rate. jHe is appointed by tho hotel proprietor, Mid he excuses the high fee on the plea that he has to charge more than his regfilar rate in order to make good the bonus Vo the proprietor. This bonus is demanded for the privilege of practicing in the hotel J "This abuse is worse in Chicago than It is In New York," a prominent phyfcicianiaid. \ "The bonus system is certainly an outrage on the traveling public," said another physician, "but at the same time the hotel doctor should not shoulder the entire blame for it. The responsibility rests with the hotel proprietor who is mean enough to look for gain from the sickness of one of his patrons. It is not using very strong language to call this barbarism. Hotel proprietors who favor the fleecing of the sick in their establishments ought to be tabooed by every honorable and self respecting man and woman. If guests were to stay away from •uch hotels, tho bonus system would be Quickly suppressed." " ~" " No Blood Shed Aftn All. I A Jeff ersonville society reporter who recently announced that a wedding had been postponed because the bride's troualean had not been finished got himself into hot water. The reporter was appronched by the prospective groom, whe w>". : ' '■" ' mad, with the exclamation -i print that lie for. It's n "?ss whether my wife* t io or not." The new* p , tilanation pacified th< n '>■ look hip hand and in c - . i .-. pretence at tho marriage v • id'u few nights later. - --1.1 ;,/. '.i u-ier- Journal. A CSood Example. , . [rs. GooilAin— You shouldn't eat ex inv.iiy p -limits, Johnny. You'll be hay in;; dyspepsia. Johnny— Do the policemen have dyi pej>*ia, mamma?*