PAVING THE DOCTOR

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 15 September 1924, Page 10

PAVING THE DOCTOR

FOR PREVENTION. At the last meeting of the British Medical Association at Bradford, Dr. Peter Macdonald, of York, addressed the meeting upon preventive medicines. We had to admit, he. said, that it was to the financial interest of the doctor that there should be more diseases and not less, and it was only because “we do not live by bread alone, ’ that the private practitioner did not wish to see more disease in the world.

Dr. Harold, who continued the discussion, said that the general practitioner had taken little interest in disease prevention, because of the very unatli active way in which the subject had been presented to medical men i'ho student had the idea that a medical officer ot health was not a “proper but more- like “n genteel plumber or scavenger/’ and "public health work was largely a matter of p. acl-li.-aI bacteriology. It was. a. new phase that now commenced an- epoch ot society study in relation to diseases, and there had been added an attempt to exercise some control over individuals throughout life. colonel Freemantle said, that from House of Commons experience he judged that the influence of a small group of medica! men was not what it- should be and this was for the lack of backing by the profession at large. S Professor Wynne, Medical Officer of Health, regretted that the private piaetitioner was bound to o-ive a bottle o medicine as he was not sufficiently independent to try to warn mothers Com the superstitious belief that such nlieri a f Vays f Medicine sup he \ * ' va r s often disastrous, he said, because of its large pmnoN , n :p ir f letup If appears that‘the -..inic. between the nnvate practirm!hT 1 J J,e - l,ealth is likely to continue until the time Jli ves when there is State- control in Urn 1 Dealtb IK D hlg + ly qualified men in u- ] • i Department, or until the H"n C fbo eClde n t 0 pay doctors to l n i not cons ider them wreck. hfe-belts in health shipi doctor.’’ the “nanel doctor,’’ instead )of. b,eing paid " r capita sick should be paid accordum t * the number reported “fit for dutv ” over the h/altr „f "tIS/ c ‘° the process. * yearly savin § m