UNEMPLOYED DOCTORS

Taranaki Daily News, 16 October 1931, Page 7

UNEMPLOYED DOCTORS

SOME ON THE DOLE. , POOR OUTLOOK IN SYDNEY. What; are doctors to do when there is no doctoring to do? That is the question which came from the group of young men and women who received medical degrees at the University of Sydney lately. A correspondent says:— “Seeing that even some men in Macquarie Street are prospecting, and some general practitioners are receiving the dole, the outlook for the new draft is not encouraging. But a week ago there was published a complaint that students of the university who had passed into the ranks of the medical profession two years ago had not yet obtained any employment of a lucrative character. The not been able to do much for them —not as much as usual, it was said.

“In these circumstances the advice of Professor Lambie, the Bosch professor of medicine, that the new doctors of yesterday should ‘get married without any delay whatever’ seemed to be grim humour. ‘lt is the right and proper thing for a doctor to do,’ asserted the professor, growing enthusiastic, ‘because it gives him confidence.’ The new graduates disagreed, but they could not say so.

“Professor Wallace, the vice-chancellor of the University, was impressive in the Aberdonian way. He thought of the finances, not of the immediate future of the new doctors, but later. ‘The university is passing through difficult times,’ he said. ‘lt is the duty’ of every graduate to give it all possible assistance, moral and financial.’ ‘He may count on me for the moral support,’ murmured one young doctor as the group separated and went out into the world.”