“MOST DREADFUL”

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 286, 16 September 1935, Page 5

“MOST DREADFUL”

HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATION. DOMINION SYSTEM CONDEMNED. ENGLISH DOCTOR'S CRITICISM. (United Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.55 p.m.) MELBOURNE, This Day. Much comment has been aroused by statements by Dr. Guy Dain, of Birmingham, at the final session of the Medical Congress, when he criticised the standard fee of 10s 6d charged by Australian doctors.

Dr. Dain said that the basic charge for consultations in his surgery was half-a-crown. The Australian charges "drove patients to consult chemists, Chinese herbalists and public clinics. Dir. Dain blamed the high cost of Australian private medical services for much of the congestion in the public hospitals. The lowest price for a bottle of medicine in Australia was 3s Gd, whereas in the country areas in England doctors did their own dispensing.

Dr. Dain also condemned the New Zealand hospital system, where Hospital boards were changed every two years, with danger of frequent changes of policy and administration. Never had 1 he seen anything more dreadful in hospital administration than that. Defending their fees, the Victorian doctors claimed that much of their work was done free, and much was done cheaply for lodge patients. Half a guinea enabled them to “pick up on the swings what they lost on the roundabouts.” There could be no reduction while so much w r as done free.