UNDERPAID DOCTORS
'SIR,—I was very perturbed to read such an illogical letter from a brother medical man as that of Dr. Lampard. The statements in my letter were correct. If Dr. Lampard only covered 8,too miles in practising his pro- fession with the number of patients necessary to justify the services of a dispenser, he is lucky. And, if he reads my letter again, he will see that my mileage expenses were stated to exclude depreciation and saving for replacement. I am afraid that his car will hardly continue to give such economical performance—but the fact remains that I had to employ two cars in order to give me a safety margin, and taxation, excessive in my opinion, helped to double my motoring expenses.
Dr. Lampard evidently prefers reading about other people's examina- tions of his patients to examining them himself. I agree that, in the Services, medical histories are useful—and I make a point of supplement- ing the information in them as fully as possible ; but I consider that most of these histories take me more time than my examinations, and that, under a contract which I have accepted as fair, I am bound to perform the duty of doing this " secretarial " work. But I do not consider that Panel doctors are paid sufficiently under the present capitation rates for secretarial work, and prophesy that this work must be greater in the future. As Dr. Lampard says, " secretarial assistance will cause a real advance in the standards of British medicine " —but who is to pay
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