EXAMINATION FOR ALL.

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17168, 2 August 1927, Page 5

EXAMINATION FOR ALL.

IS IT PRACTICABLE?.

SYDNEY DOCTOR'S VIEWS.

Sir Robert Phillip, president of the British Medical Association, in an ad- ; dress to the Association at, Edinburgh, advocated among other things systematic, medical examination for everyone for the heallhy as well as the sick. Other tenets .in the president's gospel are, that the doctor should regard himself "more,and more as a proven live agent," and there should be "private contracts on the Oriental principle of payment for being kept well." .. These principles and credos found endorsement among Sydney practitioners. . "Systematic medical examination, said a doctor with wide experience of illnesses rising out of industrial diseases, "is a. goal that the best, medical effort is aiming at. At present, of course, there are economic difficulties; if medicine ever became nationalised it would he simpler. At present the average worker shirks medical examination for"'fear some crave lesion may be located, lie believes in the doggerel, 'Where ignorance is bliss Mis folly to bo wise,' forgetting that by thai outlook he may he. depriving himself of a reasonable, expectation of long lire. By simply having their blood pressure taken at regular intervals men over -'io would decrease by HO per cent, cases of cerebral haemorrhage. There are an enormous number or these. The practice would also allow many potential sufferers from paralysis to reach ripe old age.' | "Couldn't the hospitals conduct I regular examinations on the lines suggested," the doctor was asked. j

Matter of Money. "They could," was the reply, "if they had the money. But where are they to get it? The main thing—the practical thing at present—is to get people to realise the importance of preventive treatment —that is. of getling regular advice. The cost is frilling compared with Hie probable benefit." A leading Macquarie Street doctor was asked what he thought of the Oriental plan of paying a physician to keep Hie client in health. "Not at all a bad idea," he replied, "but human nature is against it. At least among Anglo-Saxon peoples. "So long as they arc reasonably well they do not want to be reminded that they may get ill. And the poorer people have not a margin for medical treatment. You want to educate the people to Ihe fact that there is a profit in preventive treatment. Then there will be a chance of improved health for everyone." j

A Contra View

Another Macquarie Street, doctor

took the opposite view, lie was not at all enthusiastic about the changes advocated by Sir Robert Phillip. "Willi regard to periodic medical examinations," lie said, "there is a likelihood that the practice would make people more iklgclty about their health than they are now. The neurotics and

hypochrondiaes would be Ihe ones most likely to go up for inquiry. They would be thinking about themselves, and their real and imaginary ailments more than ever.

"The ordinary business man and the robust type of person would not bother. I can sec a danger of more harnr than good if people generally are induced to be more fussy and anxious about their health. The question of preventive treatment is a big one, but we are doing a lot in that direction now. The modern practitioner doesn't merely say, 'R'm, ha!' and hand out a pill. He is a good sort of fellow—generally speaking—who takes the trouble to find out what the patient really needs, and to advise him. "You must remember that preventive methods in medicine have largely removed the dread of typhoid, scarlet fever, diphtheria, and some other diseases. And expert advice in respect to health is being given by Government and municipal bodies almost everywhere. I don't think we can change for the better at present."