LODGE DOCTORS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12571, 7 March 1919, Page 3

LODGE DOCTORS.

PLEA FOR ABOLITION. .MEDICAL MAN'S SUGGESTION. A pica for {lie abolition of lodge doctors wne put in by Dr Thacker, ALP., last night in an address to the Druids’ Lodges. Speaking as an old ' lodge doctor himself, he said that every man who belonged to a friendly society .should bo able to get any doctor in any locality of the city. That doctor should send the- patient to a communal hospital, and follow the case through. This could be done by paying more heed to how the. doctors were financed. At present it was a hulk business.' Instead of the present system a subscription should be paid merely for the dispensaries, and there should lie no doctor’s fee. With 700 or 800 patients to attend to, a doctor had merely time to say, '.’Good morning; how are you, this morning?” and leave his prescription as ho went out. Instead, all the doctors should ho asked to join a panel and take a modified fee from any lodge member. There wore many people who, because they had a ticket in anything, felt obliged to be always using the privilege. Ho might cal] these people “Como at oncers,” for ho had had the experience of being called out at two in the morning for a case of indigestion, which had disgusted him greatly. If the societies could arrange for a modified fee they would have a medical service far beyond what they had at present.