DOCTORS SUFFER

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 303, 17 August 1932, Page 7

DOCTORS SUFFER

HARLEY STREET MEDICAL MEN LOSE CASTE. A specialist for a guinea. Such is the depth to which the depression has brought Harley Street. One well known doctor witii rooms in the street expressed the opinion (says the London Dispatch) that at least half of the men whose plates adorn the doors of its houses would starve if they had no other source of income than their earnings from eonsultations. "It is heart-breaking," he said, "to see promising yonng men literally ealing their hearts out for work which never comes. "A few men make great incomes even now; but, apart from them, Harley Street, instead of being regarded as the Mecca of the profession, might just as well he renamed Heartbreak Street. "Apart from the present economie situation, which has led people to economise even in their illnesses, there has been a decline in the prestige of Harley Street, due in some degree to th overcrowding of the street and the eonsequent ch'eapening of the lahel as a guarantee of ability. "For some time there has been an increasing reluetance on the part of provineial doctors to send patients to Harley Street. They seem to have lost their former faith in it. "It is probably partly to this dismal outlook for young consultants that we owe a very remarkable proposal by the medical authorities — one which seems to go a very great length in the direction of advertising. Local panel doctors are to be provided with lists of consultants who are willing to forego the usual specialists's fees of three, five or more guineas and acr cept a single guinea for a consultation. "Accordingly, when a panel doctor feels that he would like a second opinion he will look through his list, pick out one of the consultants, and inform the patient that Mr. X will he prepared to examine him for one guinea. . "This scheme seems to imply something of a revolution in medical etiquette. Hitherto anything in the nature of canvassing has heen sternly put down hy the General Medical Council.