THE CHARITABLE AID BOARD AND ITS MEDICAL OFFICER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5655, 28 August 1896, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE CHARITABLE AID BOARD AND ITS MEDICAL OFFICER.

The following letter has been addressed by the Christchurch Branch of the New Zealand Medical Association to the Charitable Aid Board : —

Dear Sir, — I am instructed by the Christchurch Branch of the New Zealand Medical Association to submit to the kind and courteous attention of the Charitable Aid Board the following reasons for reconsidering their proposal to reduce the salary of the medical officer from .£2OO to .£l5O per annum :— (1) There has been no diminution, but, on the contrary, an increase in the work required of the medical officer. (2) The claims made on the time and attention of the medical officer are such as to render the present salary very inadequate payment, it being necessary to keep a horse exclusively for the work, the houses to be visited being widely separated, and in most cases troublesome to find. (3) Owing to the fact that the doctor is required to be always at his post for urgent calls or for confinements, and owing to the work being done entirely among the homes of the very poorest of the sick, the strain and risks to the doctor's own health deserve special consideration. (4) Among the applicants for charitable aid none are more deserving of sympathy than the sick. To do his duty to them the doctor must, spend a sufficient amount of his time, both, in listening to the details of their cases and in explaining what treatment is to be carried out, this taking not less but more time than in the case of the well-to-do. Where bodily sickness has brought with it mental distress a little time spent in cheering the patient is often a most important part of treatment. All this means a call on the doctor's time. The proposal to reduce the medical officer's salary is equivalent to a proposal to reduce by one quarter the sum at present paid as a guarantee that the suffering poor shall receive good and efficient medical attendance. — I am, &c, Eichd. W. Anderson, Hon. Sec,

Christchurch Branch of the New Zealand Medical Association.