FROM THE ARCHIVES:A claim by Dr Jacob Robinson for 2,000 guineas for medical services against the estate of Dr Cyril Bradlaw ended up with the High Court hearing evidence about the practice of doctors not charging each other for medical treatment. –
JOE JOYCE
Dr. T. A. Bouchier Hayes said he himself had never charged a doctor for medical attendance, but there was no binding rule on the subject.
“The only rule I have come across,” said Dr. Bouchier Hayes, “is this, if I may quote:– ‘No doctor should accept or demand payment of money which itself has been made in the practice of medicine. In the case of a doctor living on a private income or deriving his income from business or in any other way than in the practice of medicine, one is under no obligation whatever to attend him or her on a non-fee paying basis.’”
Dr. Bouchier Hayes added that confirmation of that rule might be had from the Practitioner’s Handbook.
Replying to Mr. Justice Haugh he said that he had treated quite a number of doctors from time to time and had not charged them.
Mr. Justice Haugh:– “Have you ever treated a retired doctor?”:– “No”.
“If you had, would you have charged him?”:– “If he had made his money out of medicine, no; but if he made his money outside of medicine, I would.”
Dr. Bouchier Hayes stated that the reason he did not charge doctors he had attended was because the majority of doctors one came in touch with were making their livelihood out of the profession, and the question of fees was entirely a matter of courtesy between doctors.
Mr. Murnaghan :– “Are you aware that some doctors do charge other doctors?”:– “I have known cases yes.”
Cross-examined by Mr. Campbell , Dr Bouchier Hayes said he had never charged another doctor for medical attendance.
“Is it your experience that one doctor or surgeon does not charge another doctor or surgeon?”:– “The majority of doctors do not charge doctors, except where a doctor might leave the profession and take up some other career or business. Doctors also feel that, if nurses got married, they are no longer covered by that courtesy.”
Mr. Campbell commented that the trainer of one of the celebrated Derby winners was a doctor, and asked:– “In the case of nurses, is it your experience that no charges are made at all”?:– “My own personal experience is that I have never charged a nurse in my life, but I know that quite a number of my colleagues have. It is quite a regular practice.”
“When one doctor treats another, have you found it the practice that the doctor so treated will very frequently give presents to the man who treated him?”:– “That is one of the embarrassing things in treating doctors.”
“The medical man tries to repay his colleague in kind?:– “It is more than repayment.”
http://url.ie/cif8