Manawatu Daily Times THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1924. The Bryce Case.

Manawatu Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 2560, 18 December 1924, Page 6

Manawatu Daily Times THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1924. The Bryce Case.

Tho Commissioner's finding in the Bryce case is in some respects a puzzle. Nobody wins and everybody wins. That is the position if the purely personal aspect is eliminated. _ And the personal aspect is quite secondary and unimportant. Mr Bryce’s action in sending his daughter to the public hospital is vindicated. But it is equally certain that Dr Barnett's action in refusing to operate is just as truly vindicated ns it is condemned. Really it is difficult to follow the Commissioner's reasoning in regard to the Bryce ease itself. He declares that every taxpayer, no matter what his position, has a right to treatment in public hospitals, but he is careful to add that "adequate fees, including a reasonable fee tor operations, etc., .sufficient to cover tho whole cost of treatment,” should be charged. The Commissioner, howovcit knows quite well that these conditions did not prevail in the case on which he was called uj>on to adjudicate. He knows that the fees charged at this a'nd other public hospitals are ridiculously inadequate "to cover the whole cost of treatment,” that there is no rule nor law by which those able to pay more could bo made to pay more, and that there is no "reasonable fee” charged for operations. Yet in almost the same breath he declares that the ■'practice of the doctors in Palmerston North in discriminating, according to a patient’s financial position. . . . is not desirable and should be discontinued." The Commissioner cannot have it both ways. If the fees were not adequate, then quite obviously tho doctors were justified in discriminating when their services were given for nothing. If the doctors were not justified, then it would have been quite right to compel them to go on, in their honorary capacity, without any fee or reward, treating every class of patient, rich or poor, who desires to use the public hospital. The Commissioner docs not mean ■that such a state of affairs should continue, because he knows that if it did the State hospital system would collapse in six months. He proves this by proceeding to make a number of recommendations with which most ordinary people will be in hearty agreement. The underlying principle of these recommendations is that tho

hospitals should be made to serve all classes. "There is,” lie atfds “a demand for tho establishment of private rooms and semi-private wards in Iliy main hospitals. These could be made use of by patients willing to pay for them.” Tilts system successfully operates in Canada, and would lie welcomed with great relief by (hose who may be called, for want of a. bettor term, the middle classes — persons who desire to pay for something more than a public hospital and less crippling financially than a private hospital. The hospital system in New Zealand is ripe for reform. It is lit’eoming an intolerable financial burden on local bodies, and one reason for Ihis is that the patient who can pay is not catered for and (lie patient who cannot pay either pays only a small proportion of the cost of his euro or nothing at {ill!