SIR,-1 am sorry the writer of a letter of last
week's Spectator, under 'Crisis in Medicine,' is allowed to shelter under the wide pseudonym of 'M. D.'
I am not a nurse, physiotherapist, almoner, psycho- logist, occupational therapist, speech therapist or `other,' but I have heard on all sides over many years reports of the wonderful work and personal and human interest taken by these people, in their hos- pital patients, and personal human interest goes a long way in the curing of a body and mind. The latest report, a typical one, I have heard on an MD is, 'Did you hear that talk on the wireless about that wonderful woman doctor who always got up and went to meet her patients as they entered the room?' (The reference was to the late `Medic.a.') `Why, my doctor doesn't even look up when I go in.' That is a usual attitude of the oversubscribed GP today, and it does not help when one is, ill.
Would it not be a good idea to print the address of 'M. D.' so that all these despised auxiliaries are enabled to give him the opportunity of coping wholly with his patients? It would be interesting to see what progress the patients made and what effect the sur- feit of drugs he would be forced to use had on them. It would certainly demonstrate to the public whether the auxiliary 'exaggerates the importance of his or her contribution to the patient's recovery.'
The result would be particularly interesting against the background of the present demand for a £10 a week rise by the doctors, when it is remembered that the salary of some of the auxiliaries does not even amount to £10 a week.—Yours faithfully, CAROL WHITEHEAD 7 Hillcote Avenue, Green Lane, Norbury, SW 16
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