Letter to the managers of the Glasgow Royal Infirmary on certain proposed alterations on the medical organization of the Institution ... February, 1870.

  • Fleming, John Gibson.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Letter to the managers of the Glasgow Royal Infirmary on certain proposed alterations on the medical organization of the Institution ... February, 1870. 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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    r, last occasion on which a Physician fell out by rotation was m 1868, and no vacancy in ordinary course will take place for which he is eligible till 1871; the last surgical vacancy was in 1869, the next will not take place till 1874; while in the medical department of the Dispen- sary there will be no vacancy till 1876, and in the sur- gical none till 1875. It is thus evident that, however eminent any of the out-going Physicians or Surgeons may be, however devoted to the cultivation of science, however ambitious of continuing to hold an Hospital appointment, and however desirous you may be of re- taining their services, it often occurs under the present system that you are for years effectually debarred from availing yourselves of these services. * The duties of an Hospital Physician or Surgeon are onerous and difficult: to become proficient in them, and also apt at Clinical teaching, require, in the opinion of the highest and most experienced authorities, a long and unbroken Hospital experience. As a rule, the members of the medical profession who have advanced practical science, who have held the highest reputations as Physicians or Surgeons, and commanded the confidence of the public, have held life Hospital appointments. It stands to reason, is indisputable, that in a progressive science like medicine, the greater the experience and means of observation, the more will be achieved by the individual. The effect of our system has been to exclude after a short term of office many of our best men, who, after serving for a few years, were turned out at the very time when the value of their services had been greatly enhanced by their experience. This interruption to their Hospital services lessened then interest in the Institution, forced them into new and different spheres of professional life, so that when a vacancy did occur to which they were eligible, they did not find it for their interest to break up their new arrangements, and engage in an unpleasant, and to them undignified, canvass of the Managers; consequently the appointments fell to younger and untried men. They were thus excluded from offices which they coveted, as enabling them to advance medical science, the fame of our Medical School, and their own professional reputation.