HONORARY MEDICAL STAFF.

Evening Star, Issue 16079, 3 April 1916, Page 3

HONORARY MEDICAL STAFF.

TO THE EDiTOH. Sir.—ln your article under 'Who Scored? you say the public of Dunedin are much indebted to the honorary medical staff for their gratuitous services, but it must never be forgotten that it is deemed a, veTy_ great privilege by every medical practitioner here to bo a member of that staff, and " the privilege is quite equal to the- benefit." We have long had dinned into our ears the great benefit the medical etaff _ confer upon us by gratuitously attending the Hospital, but, like most other subjects, there are two sides' to the statement. Speaking some years ago to an exDunedin student ' who passed in Edinburgh, and after that had seen a great deal of hospital work in Scotland . and England, serving in four different hospitals as resident doctor, and attending three others to gain insight, ho told mt> that he cor-eidercd for any" man with brains to get into the Dunedin Hospital as an honorary JiUTgeon or physician was worth £SOO or £6OO a year to him. He explained why this was so. A doctor cannot advertise, but if he gets into a hospital like Dunedin he has to deal with cases from both town and country, and if he is successful bi effecting (uresi these patients go home and tell their friends all about .their experiences and the doctor who attended them, and when these friends want advice from a city medical man they naturally go to this doctor at his own rooms, where they have to pay for his advice. So you see there is not m> much in the magnanin.ity of this claim as one would naturally think from the times it has been held, up to our ga?,e. —I am, etc. , Et>in-a, April 2.