DOCTORS' PROTEST.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 102, 2 May 1931, Page 8

DOCTORS' PROTEST.

It is reported that the louse surgeons of the Wellington Hospital are not satisfied and have—as a hint to the hospital authorities — advertised (for new positions elsewhere. One of the complaints made by them is that their bedrooms are not heated. Medical men have so impressed the public with the idea that it is not healthy to have & 'bedroom heated that it is now quite usual to have no fireplace, in newly-built bedrooms, and even shivering old people are told to "get up and walk about and circulate the blood" when they complain of the discomfort of dressing in a cold room. Roardinghouseis, hotels and most private families resent any demand for a fire in a bedroom, and all this seems to be the result of medical advice. Now these young men, some of whom have five pounds a week and board, demand heated bedrooms, and this in times of necessary economy. I have never met a useful, skilled and energetic doctor who has not avoided all forms of soft living and luxury. The practice of medicine calls for a wellhardened constitution and much self-sacrifice, and it is a sign of decadence when our youngest medicos need hot-water bottles, down quilts and hothouse bedrooms. The complaining doctors also require a warmer Tecreation room, a quiet place to study and better food. Is there any one of us who would not like all these things and five pounds a week and "perks" in early youth? We do not always get them after a lifetime of hard work; no, not even many men old in the profession. H.A.Y.