THE GOVERNMENT AND THE DOCTORS.
WE have dealt elsewhere with the grave situation which the Government have created by their attempt to override all Parliamentary precedent. Here we may point out that whatever may be the immediate outcome of the Parliamentary crisis Ministers must be weakened in their future negotiations with the doctors as to the Insurance Act. If the doctors were stubborn before, and when they believed the present Cabinet might remain in power for another two years, they will be ten times more stubborn now that dissolution is in the air. Though of course he will not admit it, it is absolutely vital to the Chancellor of the Exchequer to get a settlement with the medical profession. If he does not get it, the hope which he nourishes that the Insurance Act, which has been so unpopular up till now, will on the first of January become exceedingly popular owing to the enjoy- ment of medical benefits—the only benefits which can at once affect a large part of the population—is doomed to failure.
If the doctors are not squared, and squared quickly, it is understood that the Government's only resource will be to hand 6s. 6d. by means of a postal order to each insured person. Consider for a moment how this will appear to the ordinary working man who takes plain or, if you will, " superficial " views of a situation and does not follow out subtle lines of thought. Unless we are greatly mistaken this is how he will express to Mr. Lloyd George his feelings on the Act : "You told me that I was going to get 9d. for 4d. Well, what I find's very different. Instead of 9d. for 4d. I am going to get 6s. 6d. for 17s. 4d.—let alone what the guv'nor's paid, and jolly well upset he's been about it. That's the sum I paid in, and the other's the sum you pay out to me. Do you call that a fair deal? It's all very well for you to say that I can take my 6s. 6d. and make any terms I like with the doctors. But what chance have I got to get them to doctor me for 6s. 6d. a year ? Oh, I've got to band together with my mates, have I, and make some new scheme for medical attendance on my own ? Likely, ain't it ? You and your blooming Government didn't find it an easy job to tackle the doctors, did you P And now I've got to take 'em on. Sit up on their hind legs and beg if only I tell 'em to, won't they ? No, the whole thing is a blamed swindle-6s. 6d. for 17s. 4d.—that's what it is ! How about the other benefits—sanatorium and confinement benefits ? Yes, I don't think ! Suppose I ain't married and ain't got the consumption, and don't mean to have either ? Thank you for nothing. Next please ! Sick-pay and maintenance is it ? I've never gone sick for a week yet, and who knows if I ever shall ? But there's one thing should like to feel sure of, and that is if I've got to have my leg off I should like to have it done proper in the hospital, and none of your home treatment or workhouse infirmary. And now they tell me that if I'm injured the hospital won't take me in under your precious Act—no insured persons need apply. That's it. No more 6s. 6d. for 17s. 4d. for me! I ain't taking any. I've been had. That's it, but not twice." Of course, as Mr. Winkle said of Mr. Pickwick's action on a famous occasion, "no doubt it could easily be explained." But then, unfortunately for the Chancellor of the Exchequer, people when they are angry and puzzled will not listen to explanations. This, we venture to say, Mr. Lloyd George will discover if he does not make his peace with the doctors and so secure the medical attendance he has promised. But the doctors, who up till now have been firm but rather depressed about their prospects, are beginning to see that they have the whip hand. People when they find this out, especially if their feelings have been hurt by unctuous talk about wrangling over money in the sick-room, are not likely to be very conciliatory, and this tendency to want of reasonableness is not improv1/4d by the knowledge that "the other side" is in Queer Street and may come to grief any day. That is what thousands of doctors are feeling all over the country at the moment. The Govern- ment, they think, is doomed, and even if it holds on for a time is not likely to be in a position to carry out its threat of turning their flank by organizing a medical service of its own. Before the Government had patched together some sort of scratch medical service it would be out of office and its whole scheme for " besting " the profession upset, for nothing can be more certain than that a new Ministry, however anxious to save money, would avoid the fundamental error of quarrelling with the doctors. That is what the doctors are thinking just now. We might give other examples of how the enfeebled condition of the Ministry will make them liable to attacks from wious quarters, but those which we have given are sufficient. The Government, in truth, is like a patient up to his neck in business difficulties, who is told that with great care he may last quite a long time. The consolation to be derived from this statement is not great, for the one thing that the patient knows is that he will not be able to take great care of himself. Circumstances forbid it.
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