GREEDY, GRASPING GRAB-ALLS.

NZ Truth, Issue 115, 31 August 1907, Page 6

GREEDY, GRASPING GRAB-ALLS.

HOW "SAWBONES" BLEEDS THE CHEMIST.

What About Secret Commissions !

Are Doctors Hand-in-Glove with Undertakers?

The low-down tactics adopted by, the Christchurch doctors, or a goodly number of them, m connection with the prescriptions they, give their patients for dispensing by chemists have been made more than usually apparent lately. The goncing game is getting far too strong, and this paper's representative was asked to spill a little ink on the place where the doctor wears his bell-topper. The question of secret commissions paid to medicos by chemists, mostly on the latters' demand, was i ; threshed out a few years ago, and the discussion is said to have been productive of good ; at any rate a frenzied stillness supervened, but now the is worse than ever. Why doctors want to blackmail chemists m this unprincipled fashion can be imagined ; the cursed, sordid greed of gold is at the bottom of it. For it is nothing else but blackmail is this secret commission business. Strict inquiry has disclosed indisputable evidence, although Sawbones individually and collectively won't for the moment admit that he throws dignity, decency and etiquette to the 'four winds o"f heaven for the sake of a .paltry percentage on. a bottle of medicine. Of course, the amount grows to a pretty handsome sum during the course of a twelve month. All the doctor has to do to earn this dole is to recommend his patient to get the prescription dispensed at a shop which he recommends. If the mixture is. so made up there, he receives sixpence, ninepence, or a shilling out of a half-crown bottle of medicine. So tbe ohemdst has eigihteenpence left to supply tbe drugs, bottle, label, pay shop rent, : and have a profit left for himself. That is the sum total of it.. The doctor who thus OUTRAGES PROFESSIONAL PROPRIETY has two sources of income ; he makes his patients pay for, his attendance upon them, and then gets ; a "cut" from the man who supplies the modicine — a decidedly disgraceful state of things. It is fair thieving to say the least of it, and the patient is the sufferer m the long run. The chemist's profit is so small after the medico has made a grab at -the financial fuel that he is tempted to put inferior drugs into the mixture every time,: for the wielder of the mortar and pestle keeps an inferior article just as a publican keeps " bad whisky, or multy gin, or champagne made anywhere but at the spot the label indicates. Assuming that he does so, it doesn't i assist the sick person's recovery m any way , on the contrary, it might have the effect of a journey to Kingdom Come. But that doesn't trouble the grasping Sawbones, not a jot. As long as he can perpetuate his gross steal without the public becoming aware of the fact (the chemists concerned won't give him away) ho doesn't care a rap. Those doctors who don't carry on this sort of business refute tbe assertion that they resort to blackmail, but others merely smile when, interrogated, and all the interrogators get is the corpse of dead silence. -A certain individual returned a blunt "No," when asked the other day, but he is an incredible romancer . and "No" is a shorter word than "Yes," and is consequently much easier to say. The practice of doctors ifavoring certain chemists for financial reasons is unfortunate for other keepers of poison shops for this ■reason : A man or woman may patronise a certain man for years, or be a personal friend, but on getting down on a bed of sickness the man with the motor car, whom he calls m, may tell him or her to get their medicine from a certain chemist, and they do so, like silly fools. Thus they take their patronage away from a shop that they have been patronising for a long time. They should exhibit, a little backbone and, procure the mixture where they think fit. One chemist is as good as another, and keeps the same .sort of drugs, and tho only reason why the cove who feels your pulse wants to send you to his own pet shop ds that HE IS MONETARILY INTERESTED. Why, so many people are bluffed m this manner is that they, are frightened that thoir medical adviser will get angry if his instructions m this particular respect are- disregarded, and that he won't do his best for them, or that he will keep them on a string, as the saying goes, as long as he pleases. This is a foolish notion to cherish— unutterable bosh. The purely ethical, doctors takes his own prescription forms with him, and you can go where you like, but others aren't so gentlemanly. Result is that if a sick individual goes to a shop which, like a pub, may bie called "tied" (or; is it the doctor who is "tied"?) he or she may be charged more than they would be at a noncommission shop. That has frequently been found to be the case. A lady who had dealt with a well-known chemist for years sent for a bottle of physic ordered by her doctor. Next day the latter noticed it when making his call and said he thought he had told her to' go to So and S o 's shop. She replied that that was so, but the man whose name was on the label was an old friend of hers. Then Sawbones suddenly discovered that he had better alter her medicine, and he gave her another prescription, telling her to have it made up at the shop he recommended, saying he thought she would he satisfied with what she got there. And the lady foolishly complied. Now. that grab-all doctor damned the other druggist m a manner of speaking, but did it m such a deft way that there was no possibility of an. action for slander being instituted. There are plenty like "this josser, but they never leave a loophole for those whom they faintly ' but firmly damn to get at them. Then, there Is another case which might be cited m which a second pill merchant was. concerned. A crook individual was given his written ukas-e---in the usual imperative way, an,d told where to go to get it made up. Next time the doctor called he expostulated when he^aw tbe labelled bottle. iTlie patient efglained >tbat the shop

specified was too far away ;■ h"e had gone to tbe nearest. Sawbones grew huffy at his instructions being ignored, hut made no mistake about getting his commission next time, and for ever aftei, so long as the man was under his charge. He used to go to the chemist's counter himself, hand m the prescription, and tell the attendant where to send the bottle to. That cove was keen on the dollars if you like ; but this illegitimate and undignified method adopted by him took the business out of the hands of chemist No. 1. It .is A DEPLORABLY SCANDALOUS CONDITION OF THINGS, and to it is ;added the sting -of hope-lessness,.-'because it will continue unless some drastic remedy is adopted hy the Pharmacy Board, or by patients themselves, who may tell doctors to go to pot, intimating that they will get their medicine made up where they dained well please, and thus get it cheaper :and better. The present strangling, throttling competition amonjst chemists is due to ihe incursion of doctors who should keep m thedr own muddy ruts and leave the kindred perfesh alone. One chemist now even goes to the length of interviewing every new Sawbones that comas to the district m order to offer him commission on every customer he sends to Ms shop. The practice is common with other shops of giving thoir medical men billheads with the firm's name on. These are used for prescription purposes, and the receivers are told to take them to the place indicated. Another doctor-run show has gone one better, and issues envelopes, with the firm's name printed thereon. These are sealed by the medico and given to his patient (or victim), and other chemists won't open these : they request their customers to do so. Consequently, the enterprising firm finds m the course of a year that a great deal of money it has spent on printing has gone lor naught. There is another phase of this concession business which must be mentioned. Nurses m nice uniforms roll m and ask for them. One entered a shop the other evening— she had never been there previously— and asked for Calvert's Carbolic. There is darned little profit m this, and on Miss Blue-gown asking what discount she was allowed, and on hieing told "none," she fumed and threw the article down on the counter 1 . The lady explained, as soon as she could recover from her unwonted agitation ati being treated m such a manner, that she was always m the habit of receiving concessions, and sent a good deal of business from private hospitals to the shops. As no business had come his way, the boss said he didn't, take any stock m concessions,' so the lady who smoothes your pillow took her departure after buying threepennorth of camphorated chalk. She forgot to ask for a concession on that. Fact is that a firm m the city started giving concessions tq nurses who sent along a while back, and the custom lias spread to such an extent that now the girls m the enticing uniform have the infernal impudence to regard it as a right. So that 'between the doctors and the nurses the druggists HAVEN'T TOO ROSY A' TIME. And if the public will pause, it will 'be seen that it is 'being twisted into certain shops by the medicos.and turned nto the others by the nurses, all for their own aggrandisement. The Sawlbones who will hold out his hand feebly and miserably m a chemist's sitting-room for a tray-bit which will buy him a beer, or a sprat that will buy him something stronger, is a mournful circumstance, and this writer takes the pleasing opportunity of telling him so. The practice should he knocked out with the jawbone of a skeleton or a ton of Halswell road metal, should fall on it, and then things professionally would be on a better footing. The logic of the whole thing is this : If a chemist can give money to a doctor he can give it to the public. He can make his medicine cheaper. The man who ought to get the commission is the patient, as the saving he would make under line circs would assist him over his trouble, particularly if he were a married man. It might also be asked if the doctor gets yet' another commission ? Writer rises aad asks m an inky voice if he chips m with the undertaker and gets a commission by putting business m the ghoul's road when one of his patients peg out ? As likely as not. There is miore m one coffin deal than m any number of bottles of medicine, and when a cadaver . has tq be planted,, a little hint as to the right man to do the trick would be effective. There are about, forty-five doctors m Christchurch and suburbs and many of these wouldn't be guilty OF THE DIRTY TRICKS that are practised by the less scrupulous who put on much frill and hauteur, and live well, and motorcarise at the expense of their patients. For the latter often have to pay more for their medicine or put up with very inferior drugs. And if their fires happen to be burning very low, these deleterious concoctions might speedily send their slim, ghostly figures whirring through space, to kneel at the foot of the Great White Throne, or to balance on the rim of Hell.