TREATMENT BY DOCTORS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27073, 23 June 1953, Page 6

TREATMENT BY DOCTORS

ATTITUDE TO PATIENTS

EVIDENCE AT HOSPITAL INQUIRY (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, June 22. “A very serious change against the medical profession” was the description given by the chairman of the Consultative Committee on Hospital Reform (Mr H. E. Barrowclough) to the remarks of the Medical Superintendent of the Hawera Public Hospital (Dr. L. Berry) in submissions to the committee this morning. The statement to which Mr Barrowclough referred was: “Many general practitioners are no longer willing to look after patients who are going to occupy a great deal of their time.” In answer to Mr Barrowclough, Dr. Berry said he did not mean that doctors were necessarily neglecting their duty. Some did not have the time, and some did not feel they could give in the home the treatment needed. “The original statement definitely condemns the profession,” said Mr Barrowclough. “These patients take up a lot of time and doctors with little time available feel that they will do better in hospital,” said" Dr. Berry. There was, at times, a difference of opinion between him and doctors about whether a patient should be admitted, he added. If a doctor said he could not look after the patient in the home and he (Dr. Berry) thought the doctor should, and the doctor still said he had not the time or was not able to do so, then the patient had to be admitted. The final decision had to be based on the interests of the patient. Mr Barrowclough said that from what Dr. Berry had said he might feel it better to change his original statement to read, “Some general practitioners are no longer able to look after patients who are going to occupy a great deal of their time.” Dr. Berry agreed that this indicated the position better. He had not meant to be condemnatory. Some doctors would look after the patients if they had the time, some if they had the inclination, and some if they felt they were able to give the treatment as well as could the hospital. The committee must be alarmed by the statement, said Mr Barrowcia.ugh. The committee would be interested in the number and variety of such cases in a year, and why Dr. Berry had come to the conclusion that some .doctors were unwilling rather than unable to treat the patients at home. “We can’t leave that uninvestigated,” he added. He said that Dr. Berry might consider the matter further, and write a letter to the committee on it.