Review EDITORIAL PAGE Printed by Union Printers Ltd., 550 Powell Street, Vancouver 4, B.C. TOM McEWEN, Editor — HAL GRIFFIN, Associate Editor — RITA WHYTE, Business Manager. Published weekly by the Tribune Publishing Company Ltd. at Room 6, 426 Main Street, Vancouver 4, B.C. — MArine 5288 Canada and British Commonwealih countries (except Australia), 1 year $3.00, 6 months $1.60. Australia, U.S., and all other countries, 1 year $4.00, 6 months $2.50. Authorized as second class mail, Post Office Department, Ottawa se 25) Lae Tom ~ McEwen HIS is not a treatise on the respective merits of socialist versus capitalist medical profession, I have always been one of those who preferred to stay as far away from doctors as possible. My Scottish upbringing rebels against the idea of paying some medico five dollars for advice to “keep my bowels open” or a prescription for a pint of Epsoms salts written in Latin. However, and quite unexpectedly, I have had occasion to change my Views somewhat. This experience has enabled me, if not to draw some conclusions, to at least set forth some comparisons be- tween hospitalization in the Soviet Union and our own British Columbia. In the first place, the conditions for admission to a hospital in the Soviet Union and our hospitals at home is as different as day and night. If it is an emergency case — and mine (a ruptured. appendix) was — it is the consultation and operating room immediately. There are no such questions as: “How much can you pay in advance?” “Who will pay the bill?” “Where do you work and does your wife work?” nor statements like “We’ye only got a semi-private bed which will be five dollars extra per day- If an immediate operation is impera- tive, the inquiries come later. If not, then. the inquiries come first. But what a difference! What other sicknesses you may have had during your lifetime? Any knowledge of sicknesses suffered by parents? What symptoms, and how long noticeable before the present illness? Not a word about who is going to pay the bill or when it will be paid. The inquiry is concerned only with the tabulation of a medical “case history” the better to — direct medical skill. Hence the Soviet citizens — or'the - foreign visitor requiring medical aid or hospitalization — does not have to lie in bed worrying about how he or she is going to meet the doctor and hospital bills. There are none. Under socialism medicine and medical aid is free to the Soviet citizen, and to “the stranger with- in her gates.” One does not .need to stress what a blessing that would be to a working class family in Canada or any other country. When the economic worry of illness has been eliminated, the patient is already halfway to recovery. 503 522 503 During my week in Sochi hospital I couldn’t help but note that kindness and the utmost consideration for all patients was also an important part of Soviet Medicine in winning people back to health. In my case I had a special nurse around the clock for seven days, with ‘every nurse and “nana” (hospital work- er) on the floor running in and out try- ‘ing to help “our sick Canadian” in every way possible. These kind and lovable people even tried to make me feel less of a foreigner by tuning the house radio ~ in on “Voice of America” broadcasting from Munich! When they saw that my fever went up with that atrocious propa- Zanda they promptly switched over to’ something more conducive to tranquility! The expert medical attention and the — _ kind and gracious treatment I received ‘while undergoing my first experience of applied Soviet medicine underscored what some of the members of a British medical delegation visiting the Soviet Union had«told me a few weeks earlier. “Here,” said a young British doctor,