PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1673, 1 April 1886, Page 2

PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES.

With reference to the recent Evening Fress ineqical libel action, the Ly ttelton Times remarks :■—" The Bpccial circutnstances concern the plaintiff and a number oi the medical men ef Christchurch.. These gentlemen permitted the breach; of an important, riulo^o£ "the Hospital. When a charge wast made againut one of their number, the Medical Staff of the Hospital refused to inquire into it. When an inquiry was forced, tvr'6 medical men took part who ought ts i have been abstained. The resWt. of an inquiry was an expressien of confidence m a medical man who had contradicted his own death certificate, and had shown a most terrible want of appreciation of the reasons why consultations nre prescribed by Hospital rules.. Duiing th« trial 61 last Week it was shown that the ' best surgeons invariably describe their operations ib their assistants, and - that tio such precaution had been"' taken m this case. It was shown, too, that 'the dignity of the proft-fsionV was largely ! considered superior to : the necessity for ruloß and precautions und fair inquiry, The moral, of the. trial is, that when medical men bnliaye m this way, juries will not give them more than nominal damages when they bring libel actions into Court, against even the most reckless of writers. Hospital doctors will be forced m future to think less of their dignity, and more of the interests of the patients under their charge."