Woman Doctor Was Accepted

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31276, 24 January 1967, Page 2

Woman Doctor Was Accepted

Prejudice against woman doctors had almost entirely disappeared and medicine was an excellent career for a woman, said a Scottish visitor, Dr. Doris A. Mackintosh, in Christchurch yesterday.

In the small town of Wick, in Caithness in the north of Scotland, Mrs Mackintosh spent many years in the Public Health Service. She had no difficulty getting appointments and was deputy medical officer for the county when she retired from the service in 1963.

“Even in my early years, 1 did not find prejudice. The pioneer women medical practitioners had a rough time, but they eventually convinced people that women doctors were as good as men, and this has come to be accepted.”

A career in medicine could be successfully combined with marriage, said Mrs Mackintosh. Her late husband was a veterinary surgeon. “Doctors are so scarce there are always plenty of part-time or relieving positions for married women," she said. As medical officer for the Child Welfare Department of the Public Health Service, Dr. Mackintosh made regular medical checks on schoolchildren in her county. “I think most mothers like to think their children are being examined by a woman doctor. Small children aged five feel happier with a stranger if she is a woman.” Children were examined when they began school at

the age of five, again at eight or nine, before they finished primary school, usually at 13, and finally in secondary school when they were 16. “Adolescent schoolchildren, both boys and girls, seem to prefer a woman doctor.” Regular medical examinations at school age had many advantages, said Dr. Mackintosh. She examined a boy ;

aged 13 and found he was colour blind. He told her he wanted to join the Royal Navy, but she knew this would not be possible if he were colour blind so she asked his father to break the news gently to his son. "In his case he had several years to think about another career, but if it had not been : for his medical check he

would have been disappointed later,” said Dr. Mackintosh. In her spare time, Dr. Mackintosh is an ardent bridge player, and is skilled at bowls. “My husband and I won the bridge championship for the north of Scotland. We were very proud of that.”