THE EMPLOYERS LIABILITY ACT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 173, 22 July 1903, Page 2

THE EMPLOYERS LIABILITY ACT.

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —Will you permit me to call the attention of a large portion of your readers who are personally interested, in the Employers' Liability Act to a very frequent cause of difficulty in obtaining the compensation to which they aro en titled? When a workman meets with an accidental injury while engaged in working ior his employer, if he has any reason to suppose it will d.sable him ,rom work, he saould as once consult a duly qualiiied surgeon, and not either treat the case himself, or apply to a druggist. The registered surgeon is the only mini who cm give a certificate 'that will be or' j*ny use in such a ease.

But I find that very oft-n, instead of applying at: once to a surgeon, the workman'goes on with his work until a comparatively slight injury that would have been prompiy repaired under proper treatment causes sucn pain that he can work no longer. Then lie probably goes to a druggist. Then days, or perhaps weeks, fitter the injury was received, he goes to a surgeon. B;it the surgeon can no longer certify as to when the injury was received, it may have been done at work, or it may have been done at home —the state of the part injured will not tell the surgeon anything about that.

There is another point to be considered. Many injuries that would have been cured in a few days by rest and proper treatment become so aggravated by continuing at work that the injury becomes so serious &§ to cause permanent disability. This }s particularly the case with injuries to the lower limbs. Of course, if a man gets an injury to the hands or arms, he is at once prevented from working at all, but with injuries like sprained ankles, for example, he may, at the cost ot severe pain, continue at work until inflammation sets in. This day I have seen a ca3e of sprain of the knee whicu occurred four months ago, and has been under the patient's own treatment ever since. The joint is still lame, and contains much fluid. I don't know why our profession is so much distrusted, but it is a curious fact that 'the class which has the most severe laws and rules tor the restriction of all unqualified workers in its own trades invariably prefers to apply to unqualified practitioners like druggists and herbalists in medicine and surgery.—l am, etc., R. H. BAKEWELL, M.D. 162, Hobston-street, July 21, 1903.