DOCTOR'S ACCOUNT

Evening Star, Issue 21504, 31 August 1933, Page 1

DOCTOR'S ACCOUNT

JUDGE ORDERS REDUCTION BILL HELD TO BE EXCESSIVE. What Judge Harington described as ] an. unpleasant case to try was heard -t at the Croydon County Court, London,; | a few weeks ago. ! Dr Edward Bernard MacGinty sued j Mr Samuel W. Dixon, of Chipstead, s Surrey, for £72 2s 6d for professional J services in attending Mrs W. Dixon for j a badly sprained ankle. The charges I included , twenty-one visits at three | guineas each. The defence was that | the charges were excessive and un-J reasonable. Mr Dixon had paid forty-a five guineas into court as fair and' reasonable remuneration. \ Dr MacGinty, a general practitioner,'| said that allowance must he made for| the fact that Mr Dixon’s house was J twelve miles awa5 r . He regarded liis account as most reasonable. _ . Defending Counsel: Is it reasonable! to write like this to Mr Dixon?—“ I| have no objection to your having an- $ swers to your questions, though we 1 medical njcn are> to give J full particulars, of‘>'our charges, but it i would be well-nigh impossible, and it;, would put us on a level with the rest j of the world. However, I shall bend c low, and state the particulars required.Please do not forget to mention this when you"come to write your book on humility.” Dr MacGinty replied that that was intended to be a joke. Counsel: When you wrote “your offer of 45gs is an insult,” did you mean that as a joke? Dr MacGinty said he did not understand it to have been a serious offer, and if he had done so he would not have accepted it. Judge Harington: What would you charge if you came to see me within walkingdistancc ?—About half a guinea or a guinea. Judge Harington: Well, I consider it a very proper, charge—a charge which my doctor makes. You are charging this heavy fee, I understand, because you had to go twelve miles? Dr MacGinty: Yes. Asked by the judge how he could reconcile the difference between half a guinea and three guineas, Dr MacGinty, referred to “ certain professional etiquette which is observed between doctors.” . Judge Harington; You mean you were poaching on someone else’s _ pre-' serves and therefore made a higher’ charge?—Yes. , Sir William Wheeler, an ex-president of the Royal College of Surgeons and a member of the British Medical Association, expressed the opinion that the | charges were fair. As a rule one gen- ■ eral practitioner did not like to “ poach ” on the district of another. “I was paid 200 guineas the other day,” said Sir William, “for seeing a’ patient at Bath for whom I did nothing, but sometimes I spend a whole evening on a patient for which I get nothing.” , ~ Judge Harington held that the charge of three guineas was excessive,and awarded Dr MacGinty payment at the rate of one and a-half guineas for each of the twenty-one visits. He held, that the remaining charges were reasonable. The excess amount paid into court was applied towards the costs.