DOCTORS’ FEES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 247, 16 September 1935, Page 7

DOCTORS’ FEES

THE AUSTRALIAN SCALE. MUCH COMMENT AROUSE. VIEWS OF ENGLISH VISITOR. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received September 16, 11.55 a.m. MELBOURNE, Sept. 16. Much comment has been aroused by statements made by Dr Guy Dain, of Birmingham, at tho final session of the Medical Congress, when ho criticised the standard half-guinea fee charged by Australian doctors. He said the basic charge for consultations in his surgery was half a crown. The Australian charges drove the patients to consult chemists, Chinese herbalists and public clinics. Dr Dain blamed the high cost of Australian private medical services for much of the congestion in public hospitals. The lowest price of a bottle of medicine in Australia was 3s 6d, whereas in country areas in England doctors did their own dispensing. NEW ZEALAND HOSPITALS.

Dr Dain also condemned tho New Zealand hospital system, where the hospital boards were changed every two years, with the danger of frequent changes of policy and administration. Never had he seen anything more dreadful in hospital administration than that.

Defending the scale of fees,' Victorian doctors claimed that much of .their work was done free and much was done cheaply for lodge patients. Half a guinea enabled them to “pick up on the swings what they iost on tho roundabouts.” There could be no reduction while so much was done free.