MEDICAL ETIQUETTE

Northern Advocate, 21 December 1929, Page 9

MEDICAL ETIQUETTE

HOSPITAL AND PRIVATE.

DUNEDIN, December 20. (Several members of the Hospital Board made objection at a meeting last night to recent remarks by the Coroner, Mr J. R. Bartholomew, -S.M., at the inquest on a young woman" who died in the public hospital from the effects of an illegal operation. The fact that she told the. hospital doctors that such an operation had been performed was not notified til] after her death. The Coroner had expressed the ( view that a medical officer in a public hospital -was in a different situation from a private practitioner, and' the police should be notified. Dr. -Newlands, at the board meeting, said it was practically universal that suspected illegal abortion eases should be scut to hospital. \lf differences were made between the relationship of a doctor as an officr in a public institution and that of a doctor in. an outside institution, a serious error would be committed, even though it was legal. The first essential between doctor and patient was that confidence should not bo violated. It seemed to him invidious that a privilege allowed legally to lawyers and by custom to clergymen, was withheld from doctors. The magistrate, in laying down that a medical man should be a common informer, went outside his jurisdiction altogether. The chairman, Mr Knight, also held that there should be no distinction between a doctor in private practice and a board’s medical staff.