AMPUTATING AN ARM.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 449, 28 January 1909, Page 3

AMPUTATING AN ARM.

£SO as Part Payment!

Our readers will remember that some time back a female employee of Messrs Wm. Ross and Son, Ltd., had her arm caught in the machinery, and badly mangled. It was found necessary to amputate the arm, and, as is usual in such cases, an assistant surgeon was procured from Palmerston. His fee for the trip and “ job ” was This amount was considered excessive by the firm in view of the fact that the fee of the local medico who had the care ol the injured limb, was nine guineas. It was therefore decided to thrash the matter out in Court and let the Magistrate decide. The case came on at Palmerston last Tuesday. Mr Innes appeared for plaintiff and Mr Blair for defendant. Dr. Mandl detailed the circumstances of the accident and gave it as his opinion that the fee charged was not excessive. He had suggested that another doctor should be called in, and he understood that Mr Alex. Ross had telephoned for the doctor. The operation occupied about an hour and a half. Dr. Marlin had to come in his motor car. Witness was engaged longer than Dr. Martin. His fee was £g gs, but he understood that the girl’s father was liable to pay the amount. It was a general practice to recognise a difference betweeen ‘rich and poor patients. The rich man was charged a fair thing and the poor man a smaller amount. Under the circumstances he considered plaintiff’s fee a fair thing to people in a position to pay it. Alexander Ross said he was a director of. Ross and Sons, Ltd. After consulting with Dr. Mandl he bad directed that Dr. Martin be telephoned for. The insurance companies did not recognise Dr. Martin’s claim in the matter at all. The girl had been awarded half wages by the Compensation Court.'

Dr. Martin said that the fee was not excessive. The New Zealand branch of the British Medical Association had fixed a scale of charges. Doctors charged not only for the time lost, but for the risk incurred. If the operation was a matter of life and death, then the maximum fee was charged, because, should the patient die, the doctor’s reputation would be affected considerably. The scale fee for a major amputation was from 15 to 50 guineas. That was without any travelling allowances. The charge for travelling was 5s a mile in the day time and rosat night, mileage counted one way only. Dr. O’Brien corroborated the previous evidence as to the fairness of the charge. Judgment was given for plaintiff for the full amount claimed with costs £4 18s 4d and solicitor’s tee £2 xos.

Medical men have at times a hard row to hoe, but it appears to the uninitiated that the fee charged was excessive. Still, if people require reputation they must be prepared to pay for it. It is somewhat surprising, however, that such a skilled surgeon should rest content to hide his light in an obscure village like Palmerston !