A SURGEON'S PLEA

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 109, 4 November 1925, Page 5

A SURGEON'S PLEA

PUBLICITY AND DISEASE

USE OF BROADCASTING.

(ritOli OtJE OWS CORRESPONDENT.)

LONDON, 22nd September.

Mr. E. B;. Flint, a well-known Leeds surgeon, puts forward i the suggestion that his profession should be made more popular by broadcasting' the value of surgery. In an article in the "BritishMedical. Journal" he declares that all physicians and surgeons must feel much dissatisfaction with the present state of things. Statistics show that a distressingly large proportion of operations are on patients who have not acted in time, and Miv Flint quotes the Regis-trar-General's figures on acute .appendicitis deaths. This fear of the surgeon in the general miud should be com-j bated, as usually, the mischief is done before the patient gets to the doctor. '.'The great field for 'education," rrrites Mr. Flint, " lies in this direction, and hitherto no attempt has been made to tackle'it with energy and de-^ termination. I believe that the broad-i casting of indisputable elementary facts wouid produce an immediate and extensive permeation which would havl immense benefit. A person appointed by a; responsible body, such as_ the Ministry of Health,' would be listened to I very carefully, for discussions on health are the most enthralling of all topics to a large section of the community. "It is a tradition of medicine to condemn advertisement by its practitioners, but it seems to me a calamity that elementary knowledge of an official kind: should be withheld from the public, while pernicious statements on behalf of e^uack remedies are fallowed to be published wholesale. T

TERROR OF OPERATIONS

"In the distant future the need for surgery -will no doubt steadily diminish as the efficiency of preventive medicine and education increases; but this is not the trend of affairs at present." Mr. Flint believes that it should be the aim of surgeons to do all in their power to remove from the public mind the widespread terror of operation. Fear of death is at the root of this terror, and much good would accrue here from the occasional surgeons relinquishing their efforts to perform serious operations ; this is work for professed aurgeons, through whose hands such cases are constantly passing, and whose results are therefore better.

■Mr. Flint- lias hold many important official positions in the North of England, and is the author of several surgical treatises.. "• ' . Commenting on this statement, Dr, Alfred Cox, medical secretary of the British Medical. Association, emphasised the wisdom of reserving broadcasting to those subjects recommended by the Ministry of Health. ■"While we recognise," he'said "that there are occasions when medical men should apeak to the public or use the columns of the daily Vrcss to vouch them, we take the view (hat it is better that they should do so under iho <ius; picos of an- approved professional body. ' 85, fleet street.. ...