THE MEDICAL PROFESSION IN NEW ZEALAND

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21116, 17 March 1934, Page 20

THE MEDICAL PROFESSION IN NEW ZEALAND

TO T*E *DITOE OF THt F»*SS. Sir,—Two days ago you had an interview with one of my medical colleagues about the medical profession. In this interview it was stated, in reference to the increased number of medical students at the University of Otago, that there was a shortage of medical men in New Zealand, and that during prosperous times there were more medical entrants than in hard times. I regret having to differ from both of these opinions. Instead of there being a shortage of medical men in New Zealand there are probably 33 1-3 per cent, too many. The only shortage is to be found among the' house surgeons in the state hospitals, and the reasons for this shortage lie solely in the hospital policy of the Dominion. Probably 80 per cent, of the surgical work of the country is done in the state hospitals and by the medical profession, without any remuneration whatever. It is called an honorary system. The house surgeons take the place of students in other large hospitals of the Old World, in that they take notes, do dressings, and in other ways understudy the honorary medical men of the hospital. They also perform the duties of the house surgeons and house physicians pj these other hospitals; but in the Old Land the so-called voluntary hospitals do not admit to their wards the same number of patients in proportion to the population that New Zealand does to its state hospitals. That means that there is little remunerative work left for the average man who practises surgery outside these hospitals. There are, of course, a few well-favoured men who can make a good living in private even to-day. But there has, during the last 25 years, been an increasing tendency on the part of New Zealanders to seek their medical treatment in the state hospitals, where they get their attention gratis. Practice, therefore, outside the hospitals is becoming more and more limited, and the house surgeons, knowing this, are afraid to stay too long in our institutions, fearing that they may miss the opportunity of earning their livelihood in private. It is quite a common custom for men, because of this fear, to ask to be relieved of their appointments so that they may be able to start in practice, and so earn their own living, or to take some remunerative post in the services or in a country hospital. Were it possible to keep the house surgeons two or three years in our hospitals, making it ■worth their while monetarily, we would solve the problem at once oi the shortage of house surgeons, ana so do away with the need of increasing the number of medical students, but as things are, the house surgeons would be foolish to remain longer than six months or a year in our hospitals. Another thing that makes for shortage is that our young men, after a year's internship in a New Zealand hospital, desire, and rightly so, to go to the Old Land and there gain experience under the masters of our craft. The problem is difficult and yet must be faced, because there is, undoubtedly, hardship among the young and middle aged medical men m practice in New Zealand. The £ ub Ji c little knows the distress and heartaches Tthe medical men with young families in New Zealand to-day. The only people who are making a good living in the medical profession to-day are the lodge doctors and one or two with good-class practices and a lew specialists, particularly those doing abdominal surgery. These of course do not know much, and perhaps do not care much, about the anxieties of the middle-class medical practitioner, v ho, like all middle classes, are the backbone of their calling. With regard to there being more medical entrants in prosperous times, r that is contrary to fact. To-day, owing to the usual avenues of employment being closed to the young, the university is being crowded with students from the high schools and other secondary school, because theparents do not know what to do with tneir children. In prosperous times, comand other professions offer larger emoluments, and careers greater adventure, and certainly of less worry and trouble than the medical profession. There is a glamour, however, about the medical profession, and because the medical man has to dress the part, live in a good home, and drive in a good motor-car, the public think that his job must be a very profitable one. But the cost of education and the constant need of refresher courses which have to be tak 14,000 miles away make one wonder, I from the business point of whether it is. a good proposition to put onp's boy into medicine. Mecucai men are supposed to be like clergymen; only the clergyman gets his stipend and his free house, while the doctor except m the case of lodge doctors, is supposed to render the ir^t de iTst S S e y have o shownVw ■ much the PubUc value their medical profession in terms of livehhood I think it is only fair to warn Parents that while there is always room at the top of the tree for brilliant and P al " s " taking and industrious (underline the j last two) youths, for the youth of ave £" i age intelligence the opportunities of, making a living in the medical P r ° fession are very small in comparison with the trades, commerce, Ox other Professions. In all the other professions and trades, there are fixed charges for work done. The lawyer h3S his scale of fees laid down for him; the stock has his; the architect gets 6i rier cent on the vslue of the buildings for w£ich° he draws the plans and cunprvises the erection thereof, IS people grudge even the nnrninal fee —Yours, etc., nominal MacGIBB ON, M.D. March 16, 1934.