Sick paupers and their medical attendants : an exposé of the fraud inflicted on the sick poor, and the ratepayer, in the employment by poor-law medical officers of unqualified assistants / by C.H.

  • Holmes, C.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sick paupers and their medical attendants : an exposé of the fraud inflicted on the sick poor, and the ratepayer, in the employment by poor-law medical officers of unqualified assistants / by C.H. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    SICK PAUPERS AND THEIR MEDICAL ATTENDANTS. INTRODUCTION. The systematic evasion of clnty by many—we bad almost said a majority—of Poor-Law Medical Officers, has for a long time past excited feelings of indignation in the breasts of their more conscientious brethren, who, although they whine, and cry for help, one to another, yet hesitate individually, to bring charges of misbehaviour affecting another of their own order under the notice of the Local Government Board, and demand his censure ; thus the grievance has hitherto run its course unchecked, and the evil-doers have remained unadmonished. The frauds committed on the Sick Pauper, and the Ratepayer, have, however, at last excited the attention of the public, outside the profession, and in June, 1877, the following observations from a correspondent appeared in The English Labourers’ Chronicle:—“The recent case of starvation of an idiot in the Isle of Wight Workhouse, has aroused attention to the manner in which the administration of the Poor-Law is supervised, and when we see The Lancet, which is the recognised organ of the medical profession, protesting against the nature of the medical attendance given to Sick Paupers, we may feel sure that the state of things is very bad indeed.” Some complaint as to the attention—or, too often, want of attention—which the Sick Paupers have given to them, appears in almost every published report of proceedings of Boards of Guardians; and we would commend as worthy general notice, an amusing—albeit somewhat whimsical—work recently published, entitled, Medical Men and Manners, in which “ Doctors, and Loctor s-Doctor's Assistants,” are subjected to cruciation by an unsparing hand.