The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 1908. STATE DOCTORS WANTED.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 100, 29 April 1908, Page 4

The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 1908. STATE DOCTORS WANTED.

Some months ago a deputation to the Minister of Public Health, waiting upon him in respect to infant life protection, mooted amongst other matters the appointment of State doctors. The Minister did not receive- the suggestion with, approval, but public opinion since then has developed, and probably the Minister would accord a more sympathetic hearing to the suggestion if again made. There is no gainsaying the fact that in many of the homes of the poorest classes there are times when the presence of a medical man or woman is absolutely needed, but the expense is one that cannot be incurred, and so, too often life is sacrificed for want of the proper attention. This is not the fault of members of the medical profession, i for it is understood that they often give their services freely where there is no hope of remuneration. But the poor _ who cannot pay shrink from calling in medical aid, and so have perforce to put up with a cheaper and sometimes incompetent substitute. It should be possible for the Health Department,—or . the hospital boards— bent upon preserving life, (either of infants or adults), to provide medical aid where required. This could be done without specifically appointing salaried doctors for the purpose. Many doctors, for a small fee, would no doubt be found willing to attend to the medical requirements of the poor within' their districts. There seems to be no more reason why this should not be done than that hospitals should be maintained for the same class. It is. only an extension of the principle, and since all cannot go into a hospital when ill, —or could not be accommodated if they wished to enter—they might well be attended in their own homes as hospital patients. This is merely one aspect of the question, that bearing entirely upon the need for medical or surgical relief to those too poor to obtain it for themselves^. But a very much wider view has been taken by Dr P. C. Feriwick, of Christchurch, who has recently written to the New Zealand Medical Journal advocating the establishment of a Government medical service. In dealing editorially with this suggestion, T)t Fell, the editor, points out that both in England and the Colonies members of the medical profession have become profoundly dissatisfied with the present condition of things. He writes: —"The trouble is that doctors are exploited by the public; they work for nothing in the hospitals, so well-to-do people flock there to be .treated for, nothing; they are summoned from their beds or their meals to accidents, for which they are never paid; they attend the benevolent homes, and numbers of similar institutions free; and they give ambulance lectures free.' The result of all this is that the time is ripe for. some change; whether Dr Fenwick's suggestion is a good one or not we are not prepared to say. . . . It is time for doctors really to face the position and make up their minds how they will act, for that some change must be made seems quite certain. It looks as if things were tending to a solution on some such lines as these: that doctors should .be divided into three classes. Class 1, possessed ofthe best possible degrees and the highr est scientific attainments, to be paid by the State, and to give their time in the main to scientific research; class 2, to consist of purely operating surgeons; and, class 3, to consist of men with a mere pass qualification, which could be obtained at a less cost than the present degree and in less time.. . . . With this division into classes there would be less inducement for the public to go to chemists, herbalists, or quacks for minor ailments; and counter prescribing by chemists and dispensing by doctors might be forbidden." This, as wo have said, opens up a much wider field for discussion than the modest requirement with which we set out, and it is written purely from a medical rather than a general utility point of view. In the three classes suggested no place seems to have been provided for skilled, medical attention. People are left no choice between the "purely operating surgeon" of class 2, and the medico with a "mere pass qualification" of class 3, while they are to be denied the cheap and frequently beneficial relief afforded by chemists who prescribe for minor ailments. But of course the public,through their representatives, would have a big say in all this if it were seriously contemplated to enact such sweeping changes.