Report of the Poor Law Commissioners, on medical charities, Ireland, pursuant to the 46th section of the Act 1 & 2 Victoria, C. 56. : Addressed to the most noble The Marquess of Normanby, Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Home Department.

  • Ireland. Poor Law Commissioners.
Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Poor Law Commissioners, on medical charities, Ireland, pursuant to the 46th section of the Act 1 & 2 Victoria, C. 56. : Addressed to the most noble The Marquess of Normanby, Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Home Department. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    RemedialMeasures. I. Dispensaries. Districts to be defined. Guardians to join in the management. Managing Commit¬ tees. Mode of appointing auxiliary Members of the Committees. Funds to be raised from entire District. II. Fever Hospitals. Districts to be defined. But the necessary funds may now, it is considered, be more conveniently and economically raised and disbursed as a part of the Poor Rate, than by consti¬ tuting a new and expensive machinery for the purpose. To carry an efficient system of Medical Relief into operation in every Union, it would be necessary in the first place, with respect to DISPENSARIES. 1. That each Dispensary District should be defined, and that it should consist of one or more Electoral Divisions, so as to comprise a sufficient area and population. It may, perhaps, be deemed desirable by some persons, that the maximum and minimum of the area and population should be fixed by the Legislature, but this does not appear to be essential, and may be safely left to the discretion of the several Boards of Guardians. It seems necessary, however, that in forming the Dispensary Districts, no Electoral Division should be divided; but as some of these are so large or so populous that one Medical Officer could hardly give sufficient attendance, the Local Authorities might be empowered to appoint a second Medical Officer where necessary. 2. If the Funds for the Dispensaries be raised through the intervention of the Boards of Guardians, it would naturally follow, that as the representatives of the Rate-payers, the Guardians should form a por¬ tion of the local administration. 3. Each Union will usually comprise two, three, or more Dispensary Districts, and the Guardians of one District will generally have little connexion or intercourse with another; and it therefore seems de¬ sirable that the Board of Guardians collectively should not have the entire administration, nor be charged with the exclusive local man¬ agement and regulation of all the Dispensaries within the Union. 4. The Ex-officio and Elected Guardians, and the Wardens for the Elec¬ toral Divisions of which the Dispensary District is composed, would form a good nucleus for a Managing Committee. These wrould still, probably, in most instances, be deemed too few; and it may, for many reasons, be advisable, that the Gentry and others connected with the District, but not Members of the Board of Guardians, should be associated with them. The Clergy are in general active pro¬ moters and supporters of these Charities; and although the Law declares them ineligible as Guardians, it appears advisable that they should, if Rate-payers, be eligible to act on these Local Committees, where their services would be most useful. The qualification might be that which is necessary for a Guardian. 5. The Rate-payers to be so associated with the Guardians and Wardens of the Dispensary District, as a local Committee for managing the Dispensary, ought not perhaps to exceed in number what would be necessary to make the whole amount to thirteen. They ought to be chosen by the Board of Guardians, or else by the Rate¬ payers of the District. The former is a less troublesome pro¬ cess, and appears to be preferable; but the latter may be consi¬ dered more in accordance with the principles on which the support of the Institution is proposed to be placed. It is believed thaf no material difficulty would be likely to occur in the selection of fit persons, by either mode of procedure. 6. The Funds required for the support of the Dispensary should be raised off the Electoral Divisions of which its District would be composed, as a general charge upon the whole, and not by a separate charge on each Division. FEVER HOSPITALS. 1. With respect to Fever Hospitals, each District should be clearly defined, and ought, the Commissioners think, to consist of a certain number of Dispensary Districts. In most cases it would probably be found convenient to make it co-extensive with the Union, which generally is only of such an area as would admit of Patients being sent to the Hospital from, all '’parts of it.