The Washington herald., 1911-06-12

London, June n.-LJoyd-G Georges bill
4 proposing to provide medical attendance
all the year round for every woYkingman
by the payment OF $50 year to his
doctor, which payment is to include ss
cents worth of drugs, has created lively
commotion in the ranks Of the medical
fraternity.
The whole medical profession is up In.
arms against it. A part of their hostility
may be due to misconception, which
Lloyd-George, one of the most persua-
sive Of men, is doing his best to ex-
plain away.
| He protests that the rate OF $50 is not
definitely Hxed. They insist that It shall
be definitely f3ed at a minimum OF $50.
Lloyd-George retorts by pointing out
that the British Medical Association
never proposed to raise the figure for at
tendance in connection with friendly So
cieties and sick clubs above A25 a year.
In the actual work Of the voluntary
system the doctors attended the mem
pers of sick clubs at from 30 cents to
81 year, and he therefore contends that
IN allowing them $50 he is really very
| liberal
To this the doctors reply that in a ma
ness, millions Of persons will take ad-
vantage OF the state doctors at $3.50 a
year, who at present pay their own doc
| tors and do not take advantage of the
friendly society or the sick club.
The private patient on an average pays
about 50 to so a year for medical at
tendance, and IL any considerable num-
Der of these transfer themselves, as they
are certain to do, to the national insuF-
ance doctor, the profession will be left
in hole.
Exemptions Are Sought.
! They ask that all persons earning
wages above IS or s6 a week should be
exempt from the operation of the new
scheme. To this Mr.. Lloyd-George has
returned an uncompromising negative.
The doctors are a strongly organized
body; they are scattered over every con-
stituency in the country, and they are
in very close touch with all the electors
| Rightly or wrongly, they believe the new
scale payment is inadequate, and that the
! introduction of the general system Of
state insurance would render their prae-
| tices unsalable.2
| The slogan Is sounding in all directions
demonstrations, deputations, and angry
resolutions are the order of the day.
1t has already become apparent that the
universal shout of approval that hailed
the introduction of the national insur-
ance scheme was somewhat premature,
! to say the least.
The tendency of the whole of the new
| legislation will be to convert the doctor
into a state official Already one very
independent doctor has sent a proposal
for the state nationalism of all the
medical profession.
He would pension of all the old prac-
titioners who would not accept the new
arrangement and pay the others fixed
| stipend, rising year by year, SO long as
they continued in efficient practice.
| OF course, rich people will always in
dulge their preferences for fayorite doc
tors quite independent of the state serv-
| ice, but for the great mass OF the popu-
! lation it looks very much as If the doc
tor was going to become as much civil
servant as the tax collector.
Profession Has Power.
The change is undesirable in many
ways. Among others, because the power
Of the doctor is already quite great
enough and ought not to be increased.
There is no profession in which such
great improvements are being made as in
medicine, with the result that all doctors
regard the prescriptions of their fathers
with unqualified contempt.
In all probability their sons Will regard
with equal scorn the prescriptions which
now carry the orthodox brand, but al
though the science of medicine Is under
going successive revolutions there are no
men more intolerant, of any Improvement
that is suggested outside their own pro-
fession than are English doctors.
On the Continent they are much more
open to new ideas and are ready to in
vestigate methods of treatment which in
England would be angrily refused a hear
ing.
The British doctor is intensiveIy con-
servative, and the heads of the profess
siops are almost Chinese in their obsti-
nate refusal to recognize improvements
until they are thrust upon them by the
pressure of outside opinion.
A great feud is going on at the pres
ent moment on the question of manual
operative surgery. Mr.. H. A. Barker,
who practices this art with extraordinary
success. and who is believed at present
to enjoy as large a professional income
as any physician or surgeon in the land.
is in the opinion OF the British Medical
Association, nothing more or less than
a Quack.
Cures Difficult Cases.
It is not denied that he effects marvel
Gus cures, and that every day he is
setting limbs right which the regular doc
tors and surgeons have done their best
or theiY worst upon without success.
There is hardly an athlete In the land
who, If he happens to strain an elbow
or twist an ankle, but goes to Mr.. Bar
ker as a matter of course.
He is recognized by the admiralty a.
the supreme expert specialist in the do
main Of manual operative surgery, but
among the British medical authorities he
is disdainfully regarded as a vulgar
quack and bonesetter.
Mr.. Barker practices no secret reme-
dies. He asks nothing from the pro-
fession, excepting that they appoint a
committee to watch his methods, and II
they are satisfied after a careful. calm,
and scientific investigation that his meth
DDS are efieacious in effeeting a cure
they accord to manual operative surgery
q position which 1t ought to occupy in
the training Of a surgeon.
But for this simple recognition Mr..
Barker pleads in vain.