THE H.B. TRIBUNE. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1911. MEDICAL PROFESSION AND HOSPITALS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 238, 25 September 1911, Page 4

THE H.B. TRIBUNE. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1911. MEDICAL PROFESSION AND HOSPITALS.

lx our correspondence column today we publish another letter relating to the medical profession ami hospitals. Our correspondent writes iinilcr a misapprehension. He states that we uphold the present system <:f eontrol ;’.ud timinco c,f our general hospitals and combat the suggest imi that, as at present constituted, they should be for the poor only. We reply to his statements bi the <:rde>placed in b.is letter. We have not combatted any suggest'on regarding our geiuval bo-pit als as at present constituted. The Congress at Syd ncy last week passed tlie following resolution: "That if Hie Government undertook the entire financial support of hospitals patients who were able to oblniii mcdictl services out side should be excluded,” and it was to this proposal that, vvo took excep tioii. We i on! ended that under sm-b a system tlie m • ay miot necessarily com*' from the pockets of the people, ami pay ing tor the maint i nniiec ol hospitals no section of the community should lie debarred from entering the doors in time of sickness. To bis remarks i-cg.anliitg Ihe poor man we s.ny tlia,i while .1 poor man is not necessarily improvident, it docs not alter the fact that paupers are mosl ly recruited from the ranks of flic

imtiro'-'dciil. Again he says; “in a qm sticn of charity one should not look too closely mfo cause and effect.” Quite true; but who! niiiuecGon has charity with institutions entirely supported by the Stale ' Compulsory faxes levied on all classes of tlie community cannot by any stretch of imagination be called benevolent gifts, nor can the act of collect big those taxes convert taxpayers into philanthropists. As ,a mat ter of fact the system proposed bv the Medical Congress would kill private benevolence stone dead. The suggestion of our correspondent that we should pay one ami all according to our incomes for the care of the sick poor, and having paid. . render cha'-ity where it is needed, .and withhold it where it is not, is not likely to bo given effect to if the Government takes over the responsibility of fin,'lining the hospitals. We are certainly in hearty aceord with his views that only the sick poor should receive the free services of honorary staffs: yet in State-owm d. Statesupported amt State-controlled hospitals such as the Medical Congress suggests, we think honor ary service would be a thing of the past, and in its place would m-eitr i well paid staff. The generosity of

liif'dical mi’ll 'll tlicir I r<a I men I of the poor is fully recoguiscii ami univi’i-s--iilly appn a-iiit cd, especially in re sped to the fret' sen ice they- give lo hospitals. But is not the public imposing on mcdie'il men in accept mg the services of honorary staffs The public- has no more justification to expect gratuitous service from doctors than it has to expect free advice from the legal profession, free train rides for the lame, or free medicine from the chemists. If it is right for doctors to give their services free to hospitals, then it is right for newspapers to give free advertisements to the hospital board, grocers to give free groceries, drapers free blankets, and so on ad infinituiii. In concluding his letter, our correspondent states that should the use of our hospitals lie confined to the poor then comes the question of medical treatment, nursing, etc., for the man with a limited income. Now it is this mm-li-imposcd-itpon and great, section of tlie community that we are solicitous about. The Med'cal Congress says that they are to be taxed to maiid -i'll the hospitals, but they are not to benefit by them because they can pay for medical service out - side. This brings us back to the starling point, and we can only repeat what we have already said : I hat. paying for the maintenance of hospitals, no seel ion of the common ity should be debarred from enter ing the doors 'it t'mc of sickness.