DOCTOR’S RECORD FEE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23688, 21 December 1938, Page 12

DOCTOR’S RECORD FEE

ESTIMATED AT £50,000 The illness of the Gaskwar of Baroda is probably the most expensive on record. When the Maharajah collapsed suddenly, his doctors conferred with Lord Horder, in London, by telephone. Unable, despite their entreaties, himself to fly to Bombay. Lord*Horder nominated Dr Geoffrey Evans, a senior physician at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital and a Harley street specialist in kidney diseases. Dr Evans’s fee is believed to - be a record for such a consultation. Apart from the £2500 and other costs of the aeroplane chartered for him, the recognised travelling allowance for a consultant of his eminence is one guinea a mile. From London to Bombay is about 6000 miles. Dr Evans would thus receive about 12,000 guineas—£l2,6oo— the jburney alone. His fee as consultant, it is understood, would involve special payment for the risks involved and the dislocation of his London practice. It is estimated that the total cost to the Maharajah of Dr Evans’s visit will be about £50,000.