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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    It will be well for us, perhaps, to attempt to ascertain the views of the higher ranks of the Medical Profession in regard to the working of the Poor-Law Medical Service, before entering into details, and it is here necessary to premise, for the informa- tion of non-medical readers, that The General Medical Council of Education for Great Britain and Ireland, may be fairly likened in its relations with the Medical Profession, to the House of Peers with the community. At a Meeting of the General Medical Council, held in April, 1878, Dr. Acland, F.R.S., in the chair, the following proposition was moved by Sir Dominic Corrigan, and carried:—• “ That while the Council cannot undertake the duty of prosecuting unqualified practitioners, they nevertheless think it their duty to call the attention of the Local Government Board of England, to a practice which it appears exists in England, of practitioners in charge of Medical Relief Districts, of employing Unqualified Assistants to act for them in the treatment of medical and midwifery cases, tending to the detriment of the public, and other evils; and they would suggest to the Local Government Board of England, the consideration of the rule in Ireland, that no Medical Officer in charge of a Dispensary District is permitted to have a substitute, unless for a limited time, and unless such substitute is fully qualified to the satisfaction of the Dispensary Board, and with the sanction of the Local Government Board.” The Medical Officer of Health of one of the largest towns on the South Coast, writes to us as follows:— “ My opinion is that the practice of Unqualified Assistants undertaking the general care of a pauper in an illness, the principal seeing the patient once, or so, during the illness, is one that should not be allowed.” The letter which we now quote at length, appeared in The Lancet about a year since, and treats the subject we are con- sidering as one affecting the status of the profession generally :— “ Poor-Law Medical Work. To the Editor of The Lancet. “ Sir,—The insufficient pay complained of by your corres- pondent, F. A. B., is amongst the least of the grievances of which those Poor-Law Officers who conscientiously perform their duty have to complain; it is useless to blink the fact, that the acceptance does lower the social and professional position of the holder if he performs the duties personally, and it must necessarily be so as long as Poor-Law Inspectors, and Poor-Law Guardians, are indifferent as to whether Sick Paupers are attended by the principal or by an Unqualified Assistant.