Eye injuries in relation to workmen's compensation / [by Freeland Fergus?].

  • Fergus, A. Freeland (Andrew Freeland), 1858-1932.
Date:
[1906?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Eye injuries in relation to workmen's compensation / [by Freeland Fergus?]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    eluded from being, on the one hand, medical officers of workmen’s friendly societies, and, on the other hand, of being the medical officers of insurance companies doing this class of business. While the plan is good if the referees are suitable, it is disastrous if they are not. We are glad to think that Dobson and Fogg are not the rule but the exception in the profession of medicine, a remark which is equally true of the profession of law. All the same it would be much better that a medical referee should be forbidden by law to act for a workmen’s friendly society or for an insurance company doing workmen’s compensation business. Further, to remove the case from all local bias, the referee for one particular district should reside in another. If, for example, two doctors in Manchester differ as to a case, the reference should be submitted to some one, say, in Liverpool or Leeds. Patients and documents can be so cheaply and easily transferred from one town to another that there can be no objection to this plan on the ground of expense. Lastly, there are some, with whom I have great sym¬ pathy, who advocate that medical referees should be specially retained and paid a proper salary and allowed to do no other kind of practice. For such an area as Scot¬ land, one physician, one surgeon, and one ophthalmic surgeon would probably suffice. The cases would either go to them or they could hold courts in different centres in conjunction with the county-court judges or sheriffs substitute.