LOWEST ANYWHERE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27092, 28 May 1949, Page 6

LOWEST ANYWHERE

NEW ZEALAND SALARIES MEDICAL SPECIALISTS EMPLOYED BY HOSPITAL BOARDS There has been discussion in Dunedin, and indeed throughout New Zealand, recently about the salaries paid to specialists employed by hospital boards, and comparisons of the scale of salaries in New Zealand with those in Britain and South Africa indicate that the Dominion must pay about the lowest rate in the world. Britain pays about double that of Ne\y Zealand, and South Africa rises to about twice as much as Britain, or four times that of New Zealand. Dr Charles Begg, who has recently returned to Dunedin from England, told the Daily Times that salaries paid to specialists employed by hospital boards in New Zealand were lower than a ny-

where else. In Britain he often heard the remark that he came from the place where doctors were not paid when he mentioned that he was from New Zealand. In New Zealand medical officers could expect a maximum salary of about £ISOO, but in Britain the maximum was more than double that, and it was hoped there that it would be increased when a special committee set up to study medical officers’ salaries presented its report in July. “In South Africa a doctor holding a position which would earn him £ISOO in New Zealand would receive about £7500,” Dr Begg said. It was common knowledge that specialists would not stay in New Zealand when more attractive offers awaited them overseas. Doctors who went to England to study usually stayed there because of the higher income they received. Almost every place outside New Zealand offered a higher salary to its medical officers. After February 28_of this year,

local authorities'in Britain would

probably find difficulty in obtaining medical officers, for the British Medical Journal was .declining to accept advertisements for those positions unless salaries were considerably higher than hitherto. This statement was made in the Daily Telegraph earlier this year.

The new scale of salaries proposed by the British Medical Association would take a medical officer who now received £1713 a year to £2640. He would start at £2160. An officer starting under the old scale at £IOOO and rising to £I2OO would start at £I7OO under the new scale and rise to £2260. The Medical Association was also endeavouring to include a higher cost-of-living bonus, thus making the salary substantially higher.