Speech delivered at the annual meeting of the Birmingham and Midland Branch of the British Medical Association, held on June 14th 1867, on the present rate of remuneration of the medical officers to sick assurance societies / T. P. Heslop, M.D.

  • Heslop, Thomas Pretious.
Date:
[1867], [©1867]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Speech delivered at the annual meeting of the Birmingham and Midland Branch of the British Medical Association, held on June 14th 1867, on the present rate of remuneration of the medical officers to sick assurance societies / T. P. Heslop, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    We can, therefore, properly stand between the medical officers and the friendly societies with which they are connected, and give our judgment without restraint. The club payments are apt to be erected by the labouring classes into a standard, by which the value of medical services is estimated—and, doubtless, such sentiments find an echo in the classes above them. If there were no other reason than this for bringing the matter before you, I should deem it sufficient, for one of the objects of every branch in our wide-spread association should be the elevation of the standard of medical remuneration in all classes. In the recent newspaper controversy, carried on in our local press, both those who have written on the side of the profession, - and those who have thrust themselves forward on behalf of the club system as it is, have mixed up many questions only very indirectly related to the one we have now before us. I warn you not to imitate those writers, or no practical result will arise from our discussion. This evil of inadequate remuneration to the surgeons engaged in the service of clubs is an admitted and well understood evil, one that can be precisely defined, and an evil that can be precisely defined can be the more readily coped with. Moreover, there is much uniformity, though with many ex- ceptions, in the general conditions of the class contributing to these clubs. We are engaged with the same stratum of society; the actual pay to the surgeon is well known, and, so far as this town is concerned, differs but little in different societies. Let an amendment first take place here. Others more difficult, because less tangible, may possibly follow. Let us, above all things, avoid the blunder of going over too large a field. One thing at a time is a good rule here, as in most other things.