A few words of advice on the buying and selling of medical practices / by J. Baxter Langley.

  • Langley, J. Baxter (John Baxter)
Date:
[1867?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A few words of advice on the buying and selling of medical practices / by J. Baxter Langley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    some other minor appurtenance will not suit him ; he is at once irritated that he was not informed on the ob¬ jectionable points, and hastily refuses to think any more of the matter, whereas if he had seen the difficulty at the out¬ set he would have made up his min ! to surmount it. A professional man who has been settled in a locality for many years, and who feels that he is respected by his neighbours, is naturally somewhat ill at ease when some inexperienced junior with a few hundreds of pounds at command comes to make detailed enquiries as to his practice, and puts the questions with manifest suspicion. No well-bred gentleman accustomed to business would be likely to cause such discomfort, but highly qualified medical graduates often do so because they are unaccus¬ tomed to commercial transactions, in which such enquiries are made hourly without offence between buyers and sellers. Dignified patience and transparent candour re¬ bukes this demeanour more successfully than any direct expression of dislike or condemnation. To grow angry is a mistake. Scarcely a week elapses in which I do not receive a letter in which a client writes to say that “ he thinks the practice numbered-will suit him, and that if he decides to purchase it, his own will be for sale.” An un¬ principled agent will take advantage of such imprudence, and commit the applicant to the purchase of the new con¬ nexion before the arrangement for the sale of the old one can be completed. Then the victim will begin to see his disas¬ trous position. He must sell, and at no matter what sacri¬ fice ; perhaps he finds himself with two houses on his hands, and finally gives awray what was worth <£500 or <£600, be¬ cause he is obliged to take his introduction in his new practice, and cannot attend to the old one even to give an introduction. Or perhaps he may be fortunate enough to sell without such a complete loss ; but howcan he give and