HOSPITAL MEDICAL STAFF.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8558, 17 October 1907, Page 7

HOSPITAL MEDICAL STAFF.

DRS. COOK AND COWIE'S APPLICATION. EXISTING ARRANGEMENTS NOT TO BE ALTERED. At the meeting of the Masterton Hospital Trustees, yesterday morning, further consideration wan given to the application of Drs. Cook and Cowie to be placed on the active staff of the Hospital. A depuration from the Masterton Friendly Societies' Council, consisting of Messrs H. O'Leary (Hibernian Society), G. E. A. Hood (Druids), V. G. Darroch (Foresters), .S. Deugarde (Oddfellows), and 1). Threadwell (Rechabites), waited on the meeting and urged the desirability, from the Friendly Societies' point of view, of acceding to the request of Drs. Cook and Cowie. Mr O'Leary stated that the deputation had by resolution from the various Orders been requested to ask the Trustees to place Drs. Cook and Cowie on the active stall" uf the Hospital. The Societies had gone very carefully into the matter, and they had come to the conclusion that it would-be the best thing for all con- • cerned to give effect to the request of Drs. Cook and Cowie. The deputation represented about six hundred members of Lodges, and any of those members who were on Drs Cook and j Cowiu's lists should, when they ; entered the Hospital, be allowed to be treated by them. J Mr Hood thought that the last j speaker had put the membership of j the Lodges mildly. It "'as more like j seven hundred or eight hundred mem- | bers that the deputation represented, ; and when it was remembered how many people were dependent on those members, it would be seen that the deputation was speaking on behalf of a very large section of the community. When a patient of either Dr. Cook or Dr. Cowie entered the Hospital he lost the advantage of being i attended by his chosen medical.adviser. He urged that it was not only | in the iitferests of the members of Lodges,-Silt of the whole community, that the request should be given I effect to. If the change were given j effect to he offered the suggestion that a medical board should be formed i in connection with the Hospital, i with an elected chairman from whom all orders would come. Mr Deugarde said he would like to point out that the Lodges held no . for any one medical man over another, but in the interests of the Lodge members, the proposed change was desirable. It was generally :on--.-—-eeded that patients had fancies and did not like being attended to by any other than their own medical adviser. Messrs Darroch and Threadwell also urged-the desirability of granting the doctors' request. The Chairman (Mr A. W. Hogg, M.H.R.): Can you mention any spec- ; jfic cases that have suffered through not having the services of their own doctors, or have any complaints been made against the present medical i staff? I Mr O'Leary: We know of no such case, nor have we heard a"iy com-: plaints. j Mr Deugarde: We do know of cases where patients have refused to go to the Hospital because they could not be treated by their own doctors. Mr Hood added that the Trustees i must admit that a patient was at a I disadvantage when he went to the I Hospital, and was placed under the I care of another doctor. The Chairman said he was bound \ to admit that the representations of j the deputation were only fair and i reasonable. He himself would not care j to be placed under a strange doctor. The Trustees, however, had to con-' aider the matter not from a doctor's point of view but from that of a patient. The deputation then withdrew. The secretary r2ad correspondence ! he had received from other Hospitals in response to his letter asking for information with regard to their arrangements with the medical men. The Oamaru Hospital had four medical men on their staff, three of whom acted alternately as superintendent, and the other attended for consultations or operations, when required by the medical superintendent. The salary of the superintendent was £l5O per annum. There were also three doctors on the honorary staff, who attended when required and divided £SO per annum. This arrangement was found to be satisfactory. In Waimate there were three men and two lady medical practitioners in the town. There was one medical superintendent at the Hospital, who received £2OO per annum. There was no honorary staff. Out of four doctors in Ashburton, '*" two were on the staff of the Hospital, and in Hawera, where there were three doctors practising, two were g& the staff of the Hospital. There was no honorary staff. The Chairman said it seemed as though the arrangements in other .towns were very much the same in Masterton. Dr. Cook said that to a certain extent the Trustees were under a misapprehension. Dr. Cowie and he had not applied to be allowed to attend to their own patients in the Hospital, but they simply desired to be on the same footing in the Hospital as the other doctors, so that each might attend to his own patients. The scheme he had in mind was the formation of a medical board, who would elect a chairman. The latter would have control of the Hospital, and he would take all responsibility. If he did not care to do this ho could call a meeting of the doctors. Each doctor would visit the Hospital at stated times, and go round the patients with a nurse. As far as he could see at present the doctors visited the Hospital at any time. The Trustees seemed to think that if he and Dr. Cowie were placed on the active staff there would be friction but he failed to see where any friction would come in, for Dr. Hosking had said that he would welcome them. Dr. Hosking: When did I say that? Dr. Cook: I understood at the last _A meeting of the Trustees you made remark. Continuing, Dr. Cook said that in Dunedin there was a similar arrangement to the one he had outlined. There each doctor had his receiving day, and he treated the patients that came in on that day, so that if a person desired to be under the care

ot a certain doctor in the Hospital he had only to wait and go into the institution on that doctor's day. Mr Fisher raided the question that the meeting should go into committee to further discuss the matter. This course was decided upon on the casting vote of the Chairman. After considerable discussion it was unanimously resolved, on the motion of the Chairman, "that after due consideration of the representations of Drs. Cook and Cowio and the delegates from the Friendly Societies' Council, the Trustees are of cpinion that it would be unwise to alter the existing arrangements under which provision is made for the medical and surgical supervision at the Masterton Hospital."