MEDICAL CONGRESS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 29, 19 September 1911, Page 5

MEDICAL CONGRESS.

THE ABUSE OF HOSPITALS. Sydney, September 18. The ninth session of the Australasian Medical Congress opened to-day under the presidency of J)r. F. Anti 11 Porkley. . Alter disposing of formal business. Congress discussed the question of the abuse of hospitals by those iblo to' pay. Real interest in the debate centred in the attitude of the profession towards the proposals recently made by Mr. Flowers, Acting-Chief Secretary, in favour of a general system of State hospitals. Dr. Worrall (Sydney) hoped that whatever Ministers did, the profession would fight to the last ditch. The proposals were, ho said, not only adverse to the interests of medical men, but to the interests of sick poor. Dr. Nash (Sydney) supported Mr. Flowers’ scheme. A majority of the other speakers were more favourable to a continuation of the present voluntary system. Dr. Robertson (Now Zealand) said the mistake made by New Zealand in hospital legislation was that they failed to adopt a primary understanding that hospitals were intended for the sick poor.. Congress adopted a resolution to the effect that if Governments undertook the entire financial support of hospitals* patients who were able to obtain medical services outside the hospitals should be excluded, and that boards of management should bo retained. PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. Sydney, September 18. There was a brilliant gathering in the Town Hall when Lord Denman to-night formally opened the Medical Congress. Dr. Porkley, in his presidential address, said that more universally and rapidly than at any time in its history was medicine passing from the traditional and empiric, and becoming more rational. Scientific discoveries made and foreshadowed threatened 1 not ’’ only to' revolutionise medicine, but, within limits, inexorable nature ordains profoundly to alter inter-racial relationships and the influence of man’s distribution on the face of the globe, mainly through knowledge of the_ causes and the processes of microbic disease, and preventing, modifying, and controlling the action of bacterial organisms. That these results would be' brought about was exhaustively revealed by the developments in various branches of medical science. FRIENDY SOCIETIES. (Received 19, 8.5 a.m.) Sydney, September 19. \ The committee appointed at last Congress presented its report on effects; , A resolution was then adopted that ao doctor should pass for admission into a friendly society lodge or club, at contract rates, any person whose weekly income exceeded £4. It was stated that New South Wales war- the only' State which had taken d< finite steps to enforce such a system. Tii * outcome had been that wage-limit clauses had been introduced into agreements between doctors and their lodges. Victoria is taking the initial sterns to enforce the scheme, but WestraJia, New Zealand, Tasmania and Sooth Australia had done nothing. The committee strongly urged the profession to make a determined stand and enforce the wage-limit clauses throughout Australasia. WHAT THE PRESIDENT SAID. (Received 19, 9.25 a.m.) Sydney, September 19. In opening the Congress Lord Henman referred to doctors as public servants, and onlogisod their gratuitous work and self-sacrifice in the cause of humanity. Dr. Pockley declared that the increasing scope and complexities of medicine were such that a lengthened course of study from three to live years were altogether insufficient. With the exception of some portions of the brain and spinal cord, no parts of the body were sacred from the surgeon’s knife. Pseudo-scientific writers made exaggerated claims for the usefulness of radio-activity. Practically all the therapeutic effects of radium can be got from Rontgen rays. Radium emanations would not cure real cancer; early removal by a surgeon was the only rational treatment. The public failed to realise the value of the gratuitous work done in the hospitals in Sydney. Free operations wore valued at £400,000 per annum, and wore performed altogether gratuitously.