HOSPITAL CHARGES
sra,—As the victim of the accident whose cost was referred to by " Janus," I might say that I was making no complaint, that I merely reported, at lunch, the severe financial results of a slip in the night. I could, of course, have gone to an out-patient department, but I was staying with friends, I had been bleeding profusely, and the point that they wished decided was just the question of whether I was fit to go, with only amateur bandaging, to the nearest hospital. Two local doctors, asked on the 'phone to come and give an opinion on this point, displayed the utmost reluctance to come (not to over-stress the point). It was then that the expensive steps were taken which formed the subject of the original note. I might suggest that the difference between £18 odd and £6, the hospital fee and the suggested donation is considerable. It represents a loss by somebody and that somebody is presumably the surgeon. It is unfair to impose that loss on him as our voluntary system does. It is unfortunate (though not unfair) that what the surgeon misses in his practice for the patients in the ordinary' hospitals has robe made up, in part, by patients who do not or cannot take advantage.of the-voluntary system. I do not think either I or "Janus" intended to impute fault, merely to register mild surprise at a less than perfect 'systenr.—Yours, &c.,
PRISCIAN.
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