THE MEDICAL COUNCIL

Auckland Star, Volume 55, Issue 1, 2 January 1924, Page 4

THE MEDICAL COUNCIL

Mr. G. Bernard Shaw is nothing if not violent in the denunciation of any matter he considers worthy of his adverse criticism. He has now fallen foul of the medical profession, aiming his blows more directly at the English Medical Council. He is reported to have said that tlie General Medical Council is a "trade union." It is probable that lie referred to the British Medical Association, which, in its form and powers, is indeed a trade union, although originally intended merely for the support and defence of its members. In the course of years the medical profession lias changed. Competition, specialism, and the rapid growth of what one must call the commercial side of medical practice, together with the free admission to its rank s of anyone with money and patience to face five years of unproductive studentship, have resulted prejudicially, and no attempt has yet been made to grade the graduates, and sift the wheat from the chaff. Qualification and registration are no guarantee of general good conduct, morality, sobriety, or even of thorough professional efficiency. Examinations arc not an entirely satisfactory test, but it is assumed that every student desires and does his best to make himself efficient, apart from the wish to gather fees.

\ That there arc many unworthy men, ; who, for the sak- of money and social ; privileges, enter the profession of medicino without consideration for its history, objects, or grave responsibilities we all know, and it is these men who bring discredit upon their fellows, alarm the public, and. incidentally, call down the wrath of G.B.S. In all such things as this, where a great public service is attacked, we are always eventually told that the remedy is in "the hands of the people, for it is the people who pay, both in money nnd lives. As the Medical Council i B professionally supreme, it is the duty of the public to lay before it any complaint which can be reasonably made against any medical practitioner. Failing satisfaction, the member of Parliament for the district should be informed, and those who gave the Medical Council its authority will quickly see that justice is done. Just as under local government the people of a district are left to form decisions about their own strictly local concerns, so is the Medical Council expected to act for the general good, and not as a shield and ibucklcr of the doctors. At present the Council concerns itself chiefly in matters of conduct as between doctor and doctor nnrl not between doctor and public, but that is the fault of the latter. A determined effort on the part of the public to raise the standard of the medical profession will have the hearty assistance of all that is best within it, but the hands of the best men are tied until the Council is made acquainted with offenders who arc already notoriously numerous and whilst despising "quacks" outquack the worst of quackery.