HOSPITAL MEDICAL STAFF

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8538, 19 September 1907, Page 5

HOSPITAL MEDICAL STAFF

APPLICATIONS FROM DRS, COOK AND COWIE.

THE POSITION DISCUSSED,

The positron of the medical staff at the Masterton Hospital was discussed at the meeting of Hospital Trustees, yesterday morning, upon receipt of the following letter from Drs. Cook and Cowie:—"We have the honour to apply to the Masterton Hospital Trustees to be placed on the active staff of the Masterton Hospital upon the following grounds:— (1) There are four medical practitioners in active general practice residing within easy call of the hospital, namely, Drs. Ross and A. Hosking and ourselves. The first two named gentlemen at present constitute the active staff; we ourselves hold a purely nominal position as members of the honorary staff, and have practically no] rights in respect of the hospital. (2) One result obviously is that when we send patients to the hospital, they pass out of our hands, and should any patient, who is unable to pay for treatment in a private institution, desire to remain under the care of either of us, he is debarred from the benefits of hospital treatment. (3) That portion of the public that numbers itself among our patients contributes its quota towards the maintenance of the hospital as a public institution. (4) In the interests of the general public it would be an advantage, especially in cases of urgency, to have all the medical men within the borough upon the active staff. We desire to make it clear that we are entirely indifferent as to what arrangement, if any, is made to remuneration. We propose to wait upon the. Trustees at the forthcoming meeting in support of this application." Both Drs. Cook and Cowie were present at the meeting, and the former, in answer to a question by the Chairman (Mr J. B. Keith), as to whether he wished to say anything, replied that he had nothing more to add beyond what was contained in the letter. He would like to hear the j opinion of Dr. Hosking on the subject. ~ Mr Ewington : Is not this a matter for the Trustees to consider? j The Chairman: It would be as well to hear both sides before deciding: upon anything. Dr. Hosking said he did not purpose talcing sides in the matter at all. If anything were done at all in the matter, a sub-committee might be appointed to go into the question with the doctors. Mr Fisher: As far as lam concerned, I want to make the hospital as useful as possible, and I should like to hear both sides so that a fair decision could be arrived at. Dr. Cook said that he and Dr. Cowie were not taking the present action in any spirit of hostility to the present staff, but he would like to repeat that wnen any of his patients, or any of Dr. Cowie's, entered the hospital they were on*, of the hands of their chosen medical practitioners, and there were patients who refused to go to the hospital for that reason. Mr Kummer: How do they manage in Wellington, then, with such a large: number of doctors practising in the city? Dr Cook : That, is a different matter. It is an impossibility for all medical men in Wellington to act on the staff of the hospital, brt in other towns in the colony, the same size as Masterton, all the medical men are on the active staff of the hospital. The Chairman suggested that the question might be decided at once. The Trustees had a similar application before them some years ago, and they then came to the conclusion that the arrangement was not practicable. He considered that it was not possible for each doctor to treat his own patients in a hospital like that in Masterton. Dr. Cowie said that at present the medical men on the hospital staff treated their own patients, and the arrangement would be more practicable if there were four doctors attached to the hospital instead of two. The Chairman: Who' 3 going to be in charge? Dr. Cowie: Let each doctor attend to his own patients. The Chairman considered it was a great pity that the honorary staff did not work more in touch with the hospital. Dr. Cowie said that in Oamaru there were four doctors on the staff of the hospital and each took it in turn to be in charge of the institution. Dr. Cook stated'that he did not mind what arrangement was made for the charge of the hospital. AU he wanted was to be on the same footing as the present medical ftaff, who, as things stood at present, had an undue advantage. The Oamaru system could well be tried in Masterton. There each doctor took turn about for a period of twelve months to be in charge, and of course the other doctors were called in for ' consultation, in cases necessitating |an operation. A period of six I months, he suggested, might be tried in Masterton for each doctor. Drs. Cook and Cowie then withdrew from the meeting. Mr Kummer said that he took the position to mean that every doctor who came to the town should be placed on the active staff of the hospital. Mr Ewington: Yes; we will have to do that to be consistent. Dr. Hosking said that, from the point of view of Dr. Ross and himself, they would be only too pleased to have the other doctors on the active staif, if there were only room in the hospital. He thought the nursing stall" would object if they had four doctors to attend to. Another thing was that if each doctor took twelve months at the hospital, by the time an individual doctor's turn came, he would have lost all interest in the working of the institution. Eventually, on the motion of Mr Fisher, seconded by Mr Jackson, it was decided to defer consideration of the matter for a month and the Secretary was instructed to write to other hospitals asking what arrangements they had with the medical staff.