The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. TUESDAY", MARCH 2, 1926. DOCTORS AND THE PUBLIC.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 51, 2 March 1926, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

TUESDAY", MARCH 2, 1926. DOCTORS AND THE PUBLIC.

For the eari3t thai Iccke assistance, For tht urror.g that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that ice can do.

The criticism of hospital boards that Sir Lindo Ferguson uttered a; the Hospital Conference in Dunedin raises interesting aspects of the question of the duties that should be assigned to doctors and laymen in the great fight against disease. Dr. Ferguson declared that "ttere was nobody on earth more incompetjent to judge the attainments of a me*iber of the medical profession than the laymen who constituted the hospital boaods, and he would suggest that the appointment of a medical staff of a hospital should be left in medical hands.' . Dr. Uferguson might have expressed himself a. little less sweepingly. but there i? much truth in what he says. The average committee of laymen is not fitted to select a medical staff; it i≤ certainly less competent to do so than a body of In public institutions, as in private life, non-professional persons are favourably influenced in the choice of a doctor by a number of things that may be unrelated to professional skill, which, is the one qualification most required. Academic decorations in letters, position, wealth, and appearances all count for nothing, or very little, with professionp.l colleagues. They judge the work rather than the man, and a clever, keen surgeon, modestly proud of his ability, is justly annoyed by being bracketed «vi;h a "dud" who has been accepted by a board as a member of his staff. In hospital treatment the best talent available is expected, and should be obtained, and for this purpose there is nobody so well able to make satisfactory appointments as a member, or members of the profession, preferably in active employment and acquainted with modern practice. Unfortunately, however, for Dr. Ferguson's vehemence, but fortunately for the public, it faas been shown that the choice of hospiial doctors is very largely in the hands of the profession. The replies to Dr. Ferguson by hospital board delegates at the conference have been followed by a statement by the Minister of Health, who -suggests that the doctor is not fully acquainted with the Hospitals Act. Boards are required to forward lists of applicants to the Minister, the Minister reports thereon to the boards, and the Minister, in framing his report, is guided by the advice of his professional advisers. "Almost without exception.' , declares Mr. Young, "the appointments made by the boards during recent years have, been most admirable." It is satisfactory to have his assurance. This, of course, is only one aspect of the whole question. It would be easy to misjudge Dr. Ferguson. He cannot have meant that laymen should not control the work of doctors in any respect. General oversight of hospital affairs in the interests of the public i≤ the business of the layman, who is better adapted for the work of raising and spending money than is the doctor. In the hospital world the doctor has hi= sphere and the business man his. The most difficult of ail these problems, however, is the extent to which laymen should concern themselves with the methods and poßcy of the profession. It seems to us than it is impossible to draw a rigid line. At this same conference a doctor made ttree arresting statements— (1) that many people "submitted tamely" to operations; i2> that there are '"far too many unnecessary operations"; (3) that the main cause of th: = !is '"the enthusiasm of young hospital surgeons.' . We wonder if it strikes this doctor that there were often potent reasons for patients not consulting another doctor when an operation is advised, and that the responsibility for taking all available advice should be upon the doctor as well as on the

patient. That there are too many opera- I tions is something that laymen have I long suspected. And we like the word ■ '"enthusiasm" employed, to operations, j It helps to comfort those who have been j opened by mistake. Our main point. I I however, is that this i= the sort of i matter which hospital boards should not j pass over as outside their province. If | "young hospital surgeons" are too "enthusiastic," if they are allowed to i operate before ttey are competent, is ' this not a concern of the laymen on the ! [boards? It is worthy of note that in the controversy that is going on in > England now over the powers of the General Medical Council, which has made ! itself notorious by its punishment of doctors for "infamous"' conduct, it is suggested that the council's stats would be healthier if some of the members were ! laymen. By statute only fifteen of the thirty-eight members need be doctors, but! m practice all are. and more than one leading journal thinks that the council would command more publiis confidence if it admitted a lay element.