Medical attendance for the sick poor, not paupers / by Frederick Henry Alderson.

  • Alderson, Frederick Henry.
Date:
[1887]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical attendance for the sick poor, not paupers / by Frederick Henry Alderson. 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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    we must be equal to the occasion, for we cannot stop them, or even stay their multiplication, for the working classes and public opinion, rightly or wrongly, will have it so. A want undoubtedly existed, and has been felt, and the natural corollary the supply followed, and the dispensaries flourish; and the only way to remove this incubus ap|)cars to me is to establish dispensaries of an improved tyjie that shall be able to attract on their staff good, competent, and ixjpular local medical men. This is the reason why the disj^ensaries of the Metropolitan Provident Medical Association have not been a success; that they have rjot been a success is now admitted, for they have not hitherto l>een able to win the support and the co-ojwration of the profession, nor been able to obtain the medical men they might have desired for their medical officers. Mr. Ernest Hart, in his memorandum of suggestions for remodelling the scheme of the Metrojx»litan Provident Medical Association, mentions as the remedy, “ Local Medical Clubs, i.e., a number of medical societies, each with a defined area, and all practitioners of fair repute within the area should be invited to affiliate themselves.” Now, in certain cases medical clubs may be better than dis|>ensaries; they would certainly Ire better than the ty|je of our present private, or even the provident disj)ensaries as now in existence; but after many years of exjierience of such clubs, Fore.stcrs, and Odd Fellows, they are not free from considerable abuse, and appear to admit of no wage limit as regards medical attendance. I think I may too say with confidence, that the better medical men, the medical men whom the public and the profession would probably like to see attached to the Provident DisjX’nsarics of the future, would prefer, would desire to be relieved from pro- viding medicines, even when they had a surgery at their own house and dis{>ensed medicines for their private patients. 'Fhey would much like to be atfiliated to the hospitals in their own neighbourhood, so that they could avail them- selves and their patients of the advantage to be derived from timely consultation with skilled medical authority ; this step would be a decided gain to the public at large, and add con- siderably to the comfort and freedom from anxiety of the doctor, and es|)ccially to the young practitioner : it would also, I believe, conduce greatly to the dignity of the pro- fession and to the credit oif surgical skill. Consulting fees