DOCTORS’ EARNINGS

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 October 1945, Page 6

DOCTORS’ EARNINGS

■ ■ 1 ■ ' 1 " ’ COUNCILLOR’S CRITICISM WELLINGTON, October 4. The placing of the medical profession on a salary basis, operated by national authorities, was advocated in the Legislative Council to-day ny the Hon. J. K. Archer, who said the present earnings of some doctors were simply preposterous. Mr. Archer also criticised what he described as unnecessary, orders on chemists for pharmaceutical supplies. Mr. Archer said the high earnings of private medical men .were creating difficulties for hospital boards. Doctors who worked for hospital boards, either part time or whole time, were not meanly remunerated, but attention was being drawn by some doctors to the very great difference between the earnings of doctors employed by boards and those in private practice. The problem would be solved if there were a salaried profession. Doctors outside hospital boards could do their own work as medical men, but the financial side of their life should be operated by national authorities. Mr. Archer said he was astonished at the ease with which many doctors gave orders on chemists for pharmaceutical supplies. He believed many doctors, perhaps to satisfy the sometimes needless demands of patients, wrote out orders on chemists to an unnecessary extent. To some extent public money was wasted, and he thought it might be better if all doctors "had to mix their own concoctions. .