Hospital reform : revised report of a speech, delivered at the general meeting of the Medico-Political Association, held in Birmingham, April 17, 1868 / by Sampson Gamgee.

  • Gamgee, Sampson, 1828-1886.
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hospital reform : revised report of a speech, delivered at the general meeting of the Medico-Political Association, held in Birmingham, April 17, 1868 / by Sampson Gamgee. 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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    Tlie tendency of injudicious charity to lower self- reliance and encourage imprudence in the people is ob- vious, and no less certain is it that the profession are wronged by it; the general practitioners are so in two ways ; lstly, by the loss of patients who could very well afford to pay moderate charges ; 2ndly by indirect loss of reputation; the hospital officer enjoying a prestige to which practically he has no right; for he either leaves his vast out-patient work entirely undone, or, if he professes to discharge it, he does so, with rare exceptions, with so much hurry as to render it impossible that he can do it in any other but a slovenly, undignified, and emi- nently unscientific manner. The injustice to junior hospital officers is very great, for they are called upon to make sacrifices which they can ill afford, frequently altogether beyond their means. It is nothing to the purpose to say that juniors are always eager to take honorary hospital offices as they become vacant. They accept the conditions however harsh; but it is to the interest of society to take the initiative in redressing wrongs, when they press heavily on persons who have no power to remedy them, and are compelled by the force of circumstances to submit. One of the chief evils of a bad system of government, be it professional or political, is the deteriorating in- fluence exercised on those who are its agents, as well as on its objects. Use is second nature, and those who have survived a hardship generally forget how nearly it proved fatal to them, and how cruelly it operates on others. If the pleasures of memory are sweet, those of