STAFFING THE HOSPITAL.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 1586, 11 June 1920, Page 7

STAFFING THE HOSPITAL.

MEDICAL. MEN PROTEST.

At yesterday's meeting of the Palmerston North Hospital and Charitable Aid Board, the committee set up lor the purpose, recommended various alterations in the by-laws, which were necessitated by the reconstruction of the medical staff. Included in the alterations suggested was the recommendation that the medical and surgical staff consist of as many surgeons, anesthetists, medical officers, and specialists of any branch of the medical profession, dental surgeons and masseurs, as in the opinion of the Board be necessary. Honorary appointments were recommended as follows: —Senior surgeon for two years, and consulting surgeons and consulting physicians for one year; also such acting officers as may be deemed necessary to be' elected for one year. The permanent staff is to consist of the resident medical officer, his assistant or assistants. The matron, assistant matron, sisters and nursing staff, and secretary. The advisory committee should consist of the senior surgeon, senior consulting physician, senior consulting officers, a?id the chairman or one member of the Board, to which the committee and the Board might refer any matter in connection with the hospital, and it should be the duty of such committee to report to the Board if so required. Once a year applications should be advertised regarding the filling of vacancies on the honorary medical staff. These applications, it was suggested, should be referred to the advisory committee, which would advise the Board as to the most suitable applicants for the position. A general discussion followed, in which Mr Hornblow mentioned that there might be medical men desirous of joining the honorary staff, and the Advisory Board would be in a *better position to know their qualifications than the members of the Board. Sii- Jccmes Wilson said the Board would have the final decision, but it would be greatly guided by the Advisory Board in respect to such appointments. All the names of applicants must, in any case, come before the Board.

The recommendations of the committee were adopted. A letter -was received as follows from several medical men: — "As only a certain section of medical men in the town have been able to represent their side of the question of the staffing of the public hospital, we feel that the other sections should also be allowed to bring forward their views. At a recent meeting of the British Medical Association, it was pointed out to the then president, Dr. Whitaker, that it was absurd to divide the staff into surgeons and physicians, as outside the four centres this distinction is never made. "Without exception all the medical men of the town are general practitioners, and as such are qualified to practise both medicine and surgery, and not one of them could afford to accept the position of physician to the public hospital, as the acceptance of such position would be regarded by the public as a declaration that the holder of that appointment was not prepared to do surgical work in his private practice. This was pointed out to the president of the British Medical Association at their meeting-, and if such representation was made by him to you and your Board, evidently it was not plainly enough to show you that there will be no applications for the position of physician. We have also to protest against the proposed plan of asking the present members of the staff to suggest to the Board which of their medical confreres are fitted for position on the staff, and also what positions they should fill. It is obvious that with the best intentions in the world, those gentlemen cannot possibly hold an tmbiassed opinion upon the merits of their fellow practitioners. It is also obvious to all of those signing this letter that the course you are advised to adopt for staffing the public hospital is essentially faulty, and will lead to illfeeling among the members of the profession here, to say nothing of but poor results in staffing the hospital. We, therefore, consider it our duty to place our views before you, and request that you bring this letter before your Board for its consideration. (Signed), E. C. Barnett, W. L. Greig, W. P. Godfrey, J- Miller, D. Paget, W. H. Will, and Ivan S. Wilson."

The chairman said it was a curious thing that they should take up such a stand, and he could not see how the medical men could have anything 1 against it. In Auckland the arrangement had been found satisfactory. The medical men said there were no applications when a certain class of man was wanted, but as a matter of fact there were two, and one of these was appointed. In reply to Mrs Gill, he said this was five years ago. Dr. Whitaker said it was quite apparent that these doctors had not been present at all the meetings, and they did not know what had been going on. Every possible consideration had been given to their prestige. This was a very difficult business, and he had based his scheme on the feeling that certain men in this town had come here with a great deal of money and bought large practices, and had a lot of rich friends to support them. There were others not so fortunate, who had started practically without money, and it was these they wanted to help. The top dog should not receive all the consideration. There were some who were not capable of taking on surgery work in any large hospital. One of the doctors who had signed the letter had described surgery as "blood-letting process," and had no sympathy with it, believing that operations were useless. Mrs Gill: Let them all in, and you will have no trouble at all. The people most concerned —the patients —will be better satisfied. The chairman thought it advisable to give the Board's scheme a trial, and if it was found not to work satisiactorily, then a change would have to be made. _ . , . Mr Hornblow said the whole matter emphasised the necessity of the nationalisation of hospitals. It would do away with the petty jealousy that undoubtedly existed among the profession. Men possessing the qualifications should be admitted to the hospital as well as anyone .else, but this would never come about until they had a national system. The Board decided to merely receive the letter. _____