PUBLIC MEDICAL SERVICES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22053, 8 September 1933, Page 11

PUBLIC MEDICAL SERVICES

ADVERTISING APPROVED HOSPITAL SAVING SCHEME. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, July 2. A proposal to allow the advertising of public medical services was discussed at the annual meeting of the British Medical Association in Dublin. The recommendation of the council was that the advertisement of these services, including the employment of agents to bring the scheme to the notice of potential subscribers, would not contravene the generally accepted view of the profession that the practice of advertising by individual practitioners was contrary to the public interest and discreditable to the profession. The chairman of the Ethical Committee (Dr Arnold Lyndon) said that the council was not proposing that every, public medical service should advertise, but that in certain cases where they found that the lack of publicity and of advertising was adversely affecting the proper working of the scheme they should be allowed to do so. The chief interest of the debate lay in its revelation of private practitioners' alarm at the growth of such organisations as the Hospital Saving Association of London, which threatens— according to numerous speakers—to ruin the practice of the private doctor in industrial areas. LONDON'S GREAT PROVIDENT SCHEME. "In many areas, and more particularly in industrial areas," the report stated, " general practitioners are realising that large sections of the public are not prepared to rely on ordinary practice methods of payment to supply their medical needs. In the absence of any scheme enabling them to provide for medical attention by periodic payments in accordance with their ability, these persons are looking to hospital contributory schemes to supply the greater part or their medical attention." Dr Lyndon said that doctors interested in public medical services were finding that lack of publicity was adversely affecting the proper working of their organisations. On the other hand, pub-' licity methods were fully utilised by such bodies as the Hospital Saying Association, which was progressing so rapidly that its membership would probably soon be 2,000,000. One suggestion of the council was that "Consult your own doctor" should be on all stationery and propaganda notices issued by a service. But it was agreed to delete this on amendment by Dr E. Walker, of Aberdeen, who strongly objected to doctors "plastering up their paper" with business slogans. The first general protest against advertising came from Dr C. M. Stevenson, of Cambridge. "If advertising is bad for individuals," he said, " it is bad for groups of individuals." The profession would lose caste if it adopted publicity methods. BENEFITS OF-PUBLICITY. Striking testimony to beneficial effects of publicity was given by Dr A. N. M'Carthy, of Birmingham. The public medical service of that city, he said, had advertised extensively in the press, and the results were astounding. Within a fortnight of their starting to advertise, 230 doctors had joined and. 12,000 members were enrolled. Private practitioners generally must waken up to the fact that unless they advertised these service they would soon find themselves without patients. "They are running away from us," he declared. Considerable diversity of opinion was expressed as to the proposed employment of publicity agents. An amendment against such employment wa9 defeated by only two votes, and then the general recommendations of the council in favour of advertising by public medical services was carried by a large majority. By the observance of certain conditions adopted the publicity will not, in the words of the resolution, contravene the generally accepted view of the profession that practice of or association with advertising by individual practitioners is contrary to public interest and discreditable to the profession of medicine." CARTOON BY LOW. Mr David Low, the well-known caricaturist, bases an amusing cartoon on the approved recommendation. On the assumption that it is the thin edge of the wedge he asks: "Why shouldn't Harley street advertise? " His sketches depict the general practitioner with an inscription: " Families Supplied," on the ouside of his car. "Dawson's Infallible Remedy," complete with a picture of the proprietor, is on the label of a bottle, the contents of which cures Diabetes, Mellitus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Haematemesis, and Sniffles." The fashionable cut is given by Moynihan: " Let us make you a summer sports inside, double-breasted, with checked spleen, two-way duodenum and plenty of pockets." And then there is the Horder Indigestion Cure, with a testimonial from the Prime Minister: "Twenty-five years ago, through eating uncooked policy, I developed indigestion. After five weeks of your treatment, it was like a miracle. I am not getting paid for this testimonial."