Sick paupers and their medical attendants : an exposé of the fraud inflicted on the sick poor, and the ratepayer, in the employment by poor-law medical officers of unqualified assistants / by C.H.

  • Holmes, C.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sick paupers and their medical attendants : an exposé of the fraud inflicted on the sick poor, and the ratepayer, in the employment by poor-law medical officers of unqualified assistants / by C.H. 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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    to their doctor, the sick having in some cases to travel a distance of five or six miles, when there are two, or perhaps more, Medical Officers of the same Union residing within less than one. “Next: We shall find Relieving Officers systematically refusing to notice the Medical Officer’s orders for extra nourish- ment, thus rendering any strictly Medical treatment nugatory, and too often making him indifferent in the exercise of his office ; hut the greatest scandal is the practice now so generally existing amongst Poor-Law Medical Officers, of deputing their services to Unqualified Assistants, in face of their contract, and in direct defiance of the law,* and of the bodies defining their duties. “ How it happens that Inspectors! overlook this, and fail to ascertain, as they would by inquiry, that the greater number of the sick poor receive no Medical attendance whatever, in the proper sense of the word, is difficult to discover; but there is no difficulty in realising the demoralisation produced on the Medical and Relieving Officers, and the Pauper, by permitting the practice to continue.”—Oxford Times. In almost every town there is an individual known as a “ Prescribing Chemist,” who has in most instances been the Unqualified Assistant of the Local Poor-Law Medical Officer, and has had almost entirely in his charge, the sick poor of the district. No sooner is he dismissed, probably from some irre- , gularity of conduct which prevents his obtaining another situa- tion, than his late employer, “ hoist on his own Petard,” loudly proclaims that his deposed Factotum is not qualified to treat cases of illness. As time goes on, he is first surprised, and next indignant, at finding many of his patients do not heed his asser- tions, and fail to perceive that a man may be incompetent when acting on his own behalf, although he had competence to act for, and materially add to, the gains of another. * See note ante.—[C. H.] f “ One of the first and most important duties of a Board of Guardians is to appoint Medical Officers to the several districts of the Union, these appoint- ments being subject to the approval of the Local Government Board, who have issued orders as to the legal qualifications they should possess. The Local Government Board have also issued regulations as to the manner in which Medical Officers should perform their duties, and keep a book called ‘ The Weekly Medical Return ; ’ but no steps are taken by Poor-Law Inspectors to ascertain if these regulations are observed.”—Correspondent of English Labourers’ Chronicle.