PAYING THE DOCTOR.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 221, 18 September 1929, Page 8

PAYING THE DOCTOR.

PATIENTS' CASUAL HABITS. WORKING PEOPLE THE BEST. "MOKE HONEST THAN OTHERS." "The better classes of the working population, ai'o more honest in their dealings with the doctor than any other class. There is no doubt about that." This statement was made by a wellknown Wellington doctor of considerable experience to a "Dominion" representative, when his attention was drawn to a report relating to an Auckland doctor whose affairs were in the Bankruptcy Court, mainly owing to many of his patients not paying their accounts. It appears that the medical practitioner in Wellington also has his share of bad debts. "Tho percentage of bad debts," said the doctor interviewed, "depends on how long one has been in practice, and what kind of a practice it is. Bad debts are usually made by a doctor who has not been long in practice. Young doctors have a bigger percentage of bad debts at the start, but they gradually get rid of their non-paying patients, who transfer their attention to a new man. The reason they give for changing their doctor is that they have no faith in the first doctor, but the real reason is that they have not paid him. "Expected to Live on Air." "Obligations betweeii doctors and patients are largely one-sided. Patients expect their medical man to turn out to them at all sorts of inconvenient hours of the day and night, and the average patient, if ho pays for those services within the next six months, thinks he is doing well. "Doctors are not supposed to look at the•' commercial side of their practices at all, but why such a standard should be set up for the medical profession and no other is hard to reason, unless it is that the idea is prevalent that the medical man should think more 01 attending the sick than of making financial provision for his own family. Perhaps he should be able to live on air like the woodcock! There is a floating population in Wellington, and unless medical accounts are sent out frequently they are often returned through the dead letter office, as it is the exception rather than the rule for people to notify the doctor who is their creditor of any change of address. The busy doctor nas to delegate his clerical work, and some patients complain of delay in receiving their accounts, while others will be offended if the account is rendered to them promptly. "Quite a number of people seem to think that they are under no obligation to pay the doctor for previous attendances until they are sick and want his services again. The general public set up a standard of conduct for the medical profession which even a holy angel could hardly attain to, but these same people are not themselves bound by any standard at all."

Non-paying Casual Cases. It was also stated that many doctors often had casual cases for which they found it difficult to get payment. A recent instance was quoted in which a man had been injured by a motor car. He called on a doctor, who put two stitches in the wound, and dirtied several towels in cleaning it, etc. The man, who was leaving without paying or saying a word about paying, was asked wnertthe account should be sent, and replied that he was not going to pay, tho owner of the motor car would have to do that. He did not even know the owner of the car nor its number, and he went off without paying the doctor. A good many bad debts were also incurred through treatment of young women who worked in offices and lived at hostels or apartment houses.