DOCTORS AND LODGES

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2832, 25 July 1916, Page 3

DOCTORS AND LODGES

THE MEDICAL DISPUTE REPLY BY THE B.M.A. The following statement on behalf of the local late ludge doctors is the British Medical Association's reply to Air. C. S. S. Kelly's statement, published on Saturday last:—"ln his three-column letter to the l.'ress, .Mr. S. S. Kelly, lunuSrary Secretary of the Wellington Friendly ■Societies' Jledicnl C'ommittie, has not changed the fact I lint the dispute between the lodges and the doctors is essen--1 tiully in regard to payment. The doctors subi'jiit that cannot accent a rate which does not represent a fai/ increase on the old sweating pittance of 1.55. a year (equal to an average of 3!d. a week per family), for medical attendance (excluding, ol course, operations, anaesthetics, and confinements). The doctors nsk for a, minimum of sil. per family per week ( - 21s. a year), which the ledges (except three) have refused to pay. Agreement was practically reached on all other points. Various statements o£ -Mr. Kelly indicate that he wrote his plea before he had read .Dr. Gibbs's last letter. It is not necessary to repeat the refutation of irrelevance.

"lii one matter, however, the profession lias to give a contradiction to a suggestion that the H.JI.A. was responsible for the sudden termination of an engagement of an outsido doctor who was attracted to Wellington by the lodges. The incident was correctly recorded in the doc. tors' statement of July 12, thus:—'Oiie came, but lie withdrew when tho facts were fully explained to him, without the intervention of the B.M.A.' The facts were presented privately by several doetors at their own rooms. Of course, such a case would have easily coino within the proper- province of the B.Jf.A.'s executive, which should concern itself, naturally, with aay attempt by friendly societies to inflict injustice on the medical ( profession; but ia this case no intervention of the 8.1t.A. was necessary. "It may be worth while to draw attention to tiie peculiar method of argument used by Mr." Kelly and other champions of the sweating scheme. 31 r. Kelly contends in effect that a sweating rate (3ld. a week per family) becomes respectable, after a certain amount of multiplication. A .rapacious manufacturer 'could use exactly the same argument to a sweated seamstress, toiling long and arduous hours at low-rate piecework. "Another amazing ijicce of reasoning is the assertion that becjuse_ medical men 'commencing practice in Wellington' —an anxious experience—have beenjvill-, ing to accept the sweating pittance of 155., this is proof that 'they havo been perfectly satisfied with the remuneration offered.' Mr! Kelly should again read Tom Hood's 'Song of the Shirt.' Tho seamstress had to accept a sweater's

tonus, Ijut wits she 'perfectly satisfied with, the remuneration? "It is necessary to remind Mr. ICelly and his colleagues whom ho describes as 'business men' that they have failed to observe a cardinal rule of business. They did not state in writing the amount which the lodges would be willing definitely to advance on the old rate of 15s. The fact that delegates declared in the presence o!' the Hon. W. AY. Russell that they would rccommcnd 'JOs. to tho lodges gave a certain weight to such a statement. but the truth remains that no improvement on the 15s. has been offered in writing. From past experience, tho doctors prefer the written to the spoken word in these matters.""