The administration of medical relief to the poor, under the Poor Law Amendment Act, and other legislative provisions for the public health / considered in the reports of the Poor-Law Committee of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association. To which are appended certain clauses suggested for insertion in the contemplated Bill for the further amendment of the Poor-Laws.

  • Provincial Medical and Surgical Association.
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The administration of medical relief to the poor, under the Poor Law Amendment Act, and other legislative provisions for the public health / considered in the reports of the Poor-Law Committee of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association. To which are appended certain clauses suggested for insertion in the contemplated Bill for the further amendment of the Poor-Laws. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    15136. 15156. Nor should such statements as the following pass unnoticed. “Many medical men, who set their faces against these arrangements in the first instance, now cordially accede to them.” A reference to the unions be- 1746. forementioned will prove that, although, in many instances, the esta- blished practitioners, tired of the contest, and smarting under the injuries inflicted upon them, have yielded to the guardians, and accepted office on almost any conditions; yet in nearly an equal number, such has been the change in the opinions and proceedings of the guardians, that the medical gentlemen have been enabled to hold the appointment with a due regard to their own consistency. In these cases the guardians have amended their system, not the medical men their views. § 19. The preceding narratives will suffice to shew that the boards of The Poor- guardians, under the direction of the assistant-commissioners, were the tT-^v flrst to assume an offensive position. sumod an of- 1 _ fensive posi» The advertisements “ for tenders,” the dictation of terms below the tion. previous inadequate remuneration, and the imposition of degrading and injurious conditions, such, for instance, as the establishment of a medical club, were direct attacks on both the legitimate interests and the charac- ter of the profession. One of these, at any rate, was necessarily sacri- ficed, and the miserable alternative forced upon every parish surgeon, either of degrading his professional character by furnishing tenders, and accepting discreditable terms, or of forfeiting his fairly-earned advantages, by surrendering the care of the poor to strangers. Under these cir- cumstances, therefore, what ground for surprise or censure is afforded by the fact, that the medical residents collectively have acted on the defensive in many unions,* and occasionally, no doubt, with some asperity? They would indeed have benefitted both the profession and the commu- nity at large, had they in every locality unanimously resisted the attempts of the Poor-Law authorities to intimidate and coerce them into submission. The outcry of the commissioners and guardians against what was er- Alle,,C(i ,.oni_ roneously termed the combination of the medical men, was in reality very binations of , i tt i , . . . , , medical men. absurd. Had not self-interest obscured their perception, they would have seen that the practitioners of any union, in coming to some agree- ment for their mutual protection, were acting on a principle strictly ana- logous to that on which the boards of guardians themselves were formed. These powerful bodies might with equal truth be styled “ combinations,” entered into by the more wealthy rate payers, as representatives of the rest, against the paupers, and against those persons who supply the pau- pers with the necessaries of life. Your Committee do not wish to dispute either the propriety or the * The Assistant-Commissioner, Mr. Earle, confessed that no advantage whatever was gained by the practice of requiring tenders, which “ produced combination rather than com- petition.” Second Annual Report, Appendix, p. 417-