FEES OF DOCTORS

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 272, 12 August 1932, Page 2

FEES OF DOCTORS

Slump in Harley Street GUINEA CONSULTATIONS .. A specialist for a . guinea. Such is the depth to which tho depression has brought Harley Street. One well-known doctor with rooms in. the street expressed the opinion (says the London “Dispatch”) that at least half of the men whose plates adorn the doors of its bouses would starve if they had no other source of income than their earnings from consultations. “It is heart-breaking,” he.said, “to see promising young, men literally eating their hearts out for work which never comes, • . -: ■ “A few men make great incomes even now; but, apart from them, Harley Street. instead of being. regarded as the Mecca of the profession, might just as well be renamed Heartbreak Street. . “Apart from the: present economic situation, which has led . people to economise even in their Illnesses, there has been a decline in the prestige of Harley Street, due in come degree to the overcrowding of the street and the consequent cheapening of the label as a guarantee of ability. “For some time there has been an increasing reluctance on the part of provincial doctors to send patients to Harley Street. They seem to have lost their former faith in it “It is probably partly to this dismal outlook, for young consultants that we owe a very remarkable proposal by the medical authorities — one which seems to go a very great length in the direction of advertising. Local panel doctors are to be provided with lists of consultants, who' are willing to forgo the usual specialists’ fees of three, five or more guineas and accept a single guinea for a consultation. “Accordingly, when a. panel doctor feels ' that he would like a second opinion he will look through his list, pick out one of the. consultants, and ■inform the patient that Mr. X will be prepared to examine him for one guinea. "This scheme soems to imply something of a revolution in medical eti. quette. Hitherto anything in the nature of canvassing has been sternly put down by the General Medical Council. ,