The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-02-27
Workers Mlstye0ted at L. I.
Hospital; Emergencies Wait

are told uncivilly to go away. If a
worker is suffering from bad case
of hemmorhoids, he is told to come
back "next Tuesday," when the next
proctology clinic is to be held.
Told to Come Later.
If a workers wife brings in child
whose throat feels like fire, she is
told to bring the child back when the
next nose and throat clinic will be
held. In the clinics of the hospitals
of New York a workers overalls are
a uniform of shame and target for
insult from clerk and doctor. The
poor clothes of a workers wife are
held in contempt. The respect with
which clinic patient is received by
the clerks and the tone in which the
patient is spoken to and the treat
ment that is given are all determined
by the patients clothing. In any
hospital a richly dressed person will
rush in ahead of long line of work
ers demanding ms, ant treatment and
by little tipping here and there will
get it.
The emergency surgery clinics are
from 9 a. m. to p. m. If worker
is injured at work outside these
hours and comes to a hospital dis
pensary for treatment he is forced to
wait as long as an hour before an in
term will condescend to come down
to the dispensary and treat him. At
a downtown hospital near the water
front it is almost impossible for a
worker or member of his family to
obtain treatment for an accident
after 10 p. m. At other hospitals it
is nearly as difficult.
Hack Doctors.
The specialized clinics, for instance
the dental, are jokes. The worst
hack dentists and students at dental
colleges are in charge and to have e
tooth pulled in dental clinic is a
risky thing. But a worker cannot
often afford TO pay the large fees
demanded in dentists office, and
50 must take what he is given in the
clinic. 1t is the same in the eve and
ear and nose and throat clinics. The
treatment rendered worker is cur
sorry and careless. But the fees of
specialists in these lines are from
80 a visit and up, more than a work
er's meager income permits. The
treatment rendered the worker or his
samily at the pay hospitals is no
where decent.
Treatment Unspeakable.
At the city hospital clinics, such as
Bellevue, Governeur or Kings County,
where no fees are charged and which
are the last refuge of the worker,
the dispensary treatment is I'M
speakable and often downright bru-
tai. Thousands Of workers and men,
bers of their families come here after
being refused at the non-municipal
hospitals and are quickly showed thru
the doctors hands with Ii tie or no
relief. The round of personal ques-
lions barked at the patient is more
embarrassing here than anywhere.
The discrimination and mistreat-
ment suffered by workers at Kings
County Hospital, Brooklyn, revealed
recently, does not take place at that
hospital alone. Kings County is no
worse than Bellevue or any other city
hospital or, for that ma ter, the non
municipal hospitals where payment is
demanded.
Social Service Department.
Social service is one of the "char-
tiles" supported by the wealthy of
New York as salve to their con-
sciences for their wholesale exploita-
ion Of the workers and as a SOP to
the workers. The ladies who hold
lucrative jobs doing social service
7ork are forever burrowing THEN
uses into the seualid and miserable
ZONES Of the workers and all the
,ood accomplished by them is in
sstigation, investiga ion and more
Investigation. They are the first to
lenounce any efforts Of the workers
o better themselves by mass &C ion.
They are the darlings Of the liberals
md the hirelings Of the bosses. They
content themselves with publishing
teports and sending the children of
he workers on an excursion to the
country once year,