INDIGENT PATIENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 47, 25 February 1935, Page 6

INDIGENT PATIENTS.

DOCTOR AND RELIEF WORKER.

I notice Ln your Saturday's issue a repetition of the statement that the doctor who recently attended the sick relief worker had insisted on his fee being paid before he would attend. This is the mildest form in which the incident has been stated in the Press. In another paper he is said to have stood by and refused to examine the patient till his fee was paid. As the doctor who attended, I now wish to state that the report is untrue. I have waited to see if the relatives of the man would correct the statement, but they do not appear to be going to do so. I did not ask for my fee until I had examined the patient and was on the point of leaving the house, and I then asked for and received a fee that was onehalf of that customary for a night call. I make no excuse for asking for a fee. If it is not offered, it is my custom to do so, as I make my living by attending such calls. I attend very many calls where I get no fee, sometimes because the patient has not the money and sometimes because he thinks he can put his money to better use than paying a doctor. It is the latter that the doctor naturally wishes to avoid. In this case I did not even know the patient was a relief worker. GENERAL PRACTITIONER.