Infectious diseases, notification and prevention / by Louis C. Parkes.

Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Infectious diseases, notification and prevention / by Louis C. Parkes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    and therefore complying with a statutory duty, should be saddled with a responsibility which may occasionally prove to be very inconvenient, but unless the medical officer of health examines the cases notified to him, he cannot possibly be held responsible for the consequences which arise from a mistaken diagnosis. Power is given under the various Acts to the medical officer of health (or to any registered medi- cal practitioner) to obtain on his own initiative an order from a magistrate for the compulsory re- moval of a patient to an isolation hospital. As a matter of professional etiquette, a consultation with the medical attendant should always be sought, or at least a communication should be addressed to him that such a course is in contem- plation, before steps are taken to bring the matter into court. The final decision, before applying for compul- sory powers of removal, as to whether isolation is practicable in the patient's own home, and as to whether the case is of the kind contemplated in the section of the Act providing for compulsory removal, must rest with the medical officer of health, he being a public functionary charged with certain statutory duties for the prevention of the spread of disease and the maintenance of the public health, but it is obvious that the prero-