Patients' Plight
Sta,—In reply to the letter from "Senex," may I say first that I am entirely in favour of the National Health Service, of which now well over ninety per cent. of the population takes advantage. A point which occasionally leads to misunderstanding between the doctor and his
middle-class patient is' the " old private patient" attitude. By this I mean the type of patient who is only too willing to make use of the National Health Service, put is unwilling to "comply with the regula- tions." Such patients, for example, will often expect a doctor to call and see them when they are quite capable of going to see him during his surgery hours. if they, go to the surgery they are sometimes unwilling to wait in the waiting-room, but will expect to enter by the doctor's front door—hoping thereby to avoid waiting their turn with the rest of the patients.
Surely; in fairness to the other numerous patients on the doctor's National Health Service list, patients of all classes who are in the scheme should be prepared to abide by the regulations. If, on the other hand, a patient prefers to be a private patient, then he is entitled to have special consideration from his doctor, not as regards treatment and attendance, but in that he will be visited, when he wishes, or can go to see his medical adviser by special appointment and so avoid waiting. Finally, it is quite illegal for a doctor to ask for or accept a fee for attending a patient who is on his National Health Service list.
I write to make these points as I feel that the letter from "Senex" is a somewhat unfair criticism of the medical 'profession working in the
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