INCOMES IN BAD TIMES

Taranaki Daily News, 5 July 1930, Page 10

INCOMES IN BAD TIMES

DOCTORS’ ACCOUNTS UNPAID. Sydney, June 25. . The general impression is that every doctor in Macquarie Street —the home of Sydney’s medical profession, and as well known-in that respect as Harley Street is in London—is rolling in wealth. The fact is that, with the rest of the community, Sydney’s doctors are I nearly all suffering, financially, from that giddy, reeling sensation that they term vertigo. In. this case, it is not a rush of blood to the brain, but a strong tendency on the. part of professional calls to reel and fall. The fact that, one Sydney chemist alone is to-day dealing with. 50 per cent, fewer prescriptions than formerly indicates the lean time Which the doctors are experiencing. A suburban doctor sent out his bills politely request- . ing payment of professional fees totalling about £4OO, and received, in return, under £5O; Sydney’s doctors generally, in the city and in the suburbs, have dropped anything up to 50.. per cent, of their normal incoinesj owing to the bad times. Some people are unable to meet their doctons’ bills owing to unemployment, rationing, and so oil;- others who ordinarily rush to doctors with minor complaints are concerned to-day onlv with their pressing.- major ills, while others, again, who suffer from the gloomy mental disorder known as hypochondria, have too much to think about nowadays to rush to the doctor with all sorts of imaginary ailments. These are the main.reasons for Macquarie Street, like the rest of the community, having a bad fit of the financial .“blues.”