ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE

Oamaru Mail, Volume II, Issue 532, 15 January 1878, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE

We wish it. to li« mndt <li>;li:ie:i\ ii. nli:r.snuxl tlmt «-c iirenot rospousililu ior ill" <>,niih>ns eX|n-osse<l liymn ni>rres|inii(ioiit|i.j «> . TO THE KDTTOII OF THE EVr.NtNTi MAIL. Srn, —I wish by the medium of your columns to ilia v the attention of your readers to the mo.,t. important, public institution of this town 1 mean the Hospital. As it is a medium of doing good to all classes of p ople, 1 think that that good should be. done in the most effective manner possible, even though in reformation a f. w inreri titeil people may slitter by the furtherance of the public weal. How many bachelors are there in this town who mig-t meet with an accident or fall into serious illness, and find it practically requisite to go to the Hospital? Nay, that I may show that this mutter affects the interest of the public generally, How many are ihere who daily fall ill and cannot get. at homo (either from want of money or condition of the household) that medical care and that systematic nursing which can only be looked to from those usee} to it, to enable them to recover'? To such the Hospital is the best place, if it be carried on by a proper system. There one looks for good rooms, the best medical skill, the best nursing ; in fact, treatment such as can only be got when the whole resources of such an in-* stitution as the Hospital are, so to speak, ready to be called up. Yet many, I am confident, were they ill to-morrow, would not go to the Oamaru Hospital. And why / Because there is only one doctor. Granted he rs a skilld practitioner, notwithstanding we cannot expect the same man to excel as a physician as well as a surgeon. We do not expect one whose special study perhaps has been skin

diseases to bo the best man to treat eye disease. One doctor may indeed have sufficed in the former days of the town, but the district is growing rapidly ; owing to increased facilities for travelling more people come into and through the place, and so-the chances of accidents are increased. In Dunedin ono doctor formerly sufficed, then it was thought only just to the public at large and the medical practitioners that this should be increased ; four were then salaried, but now there are eight who perform their I work gratuitously. This is here (and was in Dunedin) thu evil in having ono doctor.

If there bo more, then thevo will bo greater and more varied skill at hand, for doctors, besides their general knowledge,, arc generally more practised in some particular branch, and this plan is therefore calculated to give more benefit to the public at large. But the single doctor system is unjust, as detrimental to the other medical practitioners. And howl Suppose you arc ill; your doctor, Mr. A., says " This houso has not sufficient light, and ventilation for you ; it is difficult to perform the operation bore, I have so fewfacilities." " What must Jdo i" say you.. " Shall I no to the Hospital, where 1 must. ,'0 under Dr. 8., who the doctor there I'" Now, what is Dr. A. to say I Is he to lose a most interesting case—to lose » patient over whom lie has exercised the greatest care, and let him go to the Hospital under Dr. 8., whoso treatment might be totally opposite from th,»t which he had adopted, and, under the circunr•itances, positively injurious i Now, were ■he Hospital thrown open to the doctors, •if the town, then the sick man could call ; n his own doctor. And, mark, there i» his, too : So advantageous would this opportunity of having proper means of treating important cases in thu Hospital be to r.he other doctors that, it strikes me forcibly, they would be only too willing toi perform gratuitously finch services;, whereby so much experience would be gained. To sum up, what would bo tho result if the other town doctors attended the Hospital ( People might go to tho Hospital, and yet not chango tho doctor's, hands; the doctors, for the very sake of Mat (even omitting every other consideration), would exercise all their skill, and' would exercise a right in going to the Hospital, instead of trespassing upon thedomain of any fellow-practitioner; and finally, when this increased attendancewould be gratuitous (as I am confident it would, from reasons 1 have shown), tho ■lector's salary would go to getting better nursing, &c. t for the inmates. To conclude, I have no interest in this matter,. save my liability any day to go the Hospital ; and under such rcijime as is there at present, I would rather stay at home,. than enter it to go under tho care of a different doctor. Lot mo ask such of your readers as feel this an important matter (either from self-interest or philanthropy) what they would suggest. I have met with what I consider an ill, and seek; for a remedy.—l am, &c. Public- Weal.