A memorial, presented to the medical and surgical officers of the Worcester, Salop, Birmingham, Gloucester, and Hereford, Infirmaries, on the abuses existing in the public Hospitals : with an appendix, containing the answers received from them.

Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A memorial, presented to the medical and surgical officers of the Worcester, Salop, Birmingham, Gloucester, and Hereford, Infirmaries, on the abuses existing in the public Hospitals : with an appendix, containing the answers received from them. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    7/16 (page 3)
    words, to adduce further arguments to prove a position, the truth of which 1 no reasonable person can dispute. The general affairs of these charities are conducted by those humane ! persons, who by their subscriptions contribute to support them, but possess- ing little or no information in medical matters, they usually leave these to be managed by the wisdom and discretion of the medical officers, conceiv- ing that their professional knowledge will enable them better than any others to direct the energies of these institutions, to the complete attain- ment of the object they have in view. Now, it follows of necessity, that all laws, rules, or regulations made by ’ either of these two classes of individuals in their capacities as governors, ought to be enacted with this undivided intention, and ought to assist in some Way or other in promoting it. This leads to the second queiy proposed, viz.—What are the regulations, in the observance of which students may attend the practice of these institutions ? Do they assist in the promotion of their objects ? And by whom are they framed ? In answering this, the undersigned, with no invidious motive, will beg to take the Worcester Infirmary as a fair specimen of the English hospitals, as relating to this subject; first, obsenung that in Paris, no money is demanded from medical students; there, they are freely permitted to learn the art of alleviating the miseries of their fellow creatures. In Edinburgh, the most celebrated school of medicine in the world, the fee is only five guineas for one yeai*’s attendance, including both the phy- sician’s and surgeon’s practice ; and in Glasgow, the same rule prevails. Moreover these payments, trifling as they are, do not go to the medical and surgical officers, but to the funds of the hospitals. At the Worcester Infirmary (certainly not quite so distinguished as either of these), the undersigned believes the rule is, that a student shall pay- twenty guineas to the physicians, and thirty guineas to the surgeons, for the privilege of seeing the patients contained in this public institution for one year, which sums are received by them as fees. Tliis, it must be confessed, appears a most extraordinary method of carrying into effect the benevolent purposes of this charity. The undersigned declares, he is utterly unable to comprehend by what means this measure can facilitate the curing of diseases, or the diffusion of medical and chirurgical knowledge, the avowed objects of the institution. To him it is quite clear, it must have a directly opposite tendency. How is it possible, that the payment of a sum of money by a student to