A tariff of medical fees recommended by the Shropshire Ethical Branch of the British Medical Association.

  • British Medical Association. Shropshire Ethical Branch.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A tariff of medical fees recommended by the Shropshire Ethical Branch of the British Medical Association. 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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    TAmrr of medical fees. •——♦ The Council of the Shi-opshire Ethical Branch of the British Medical Association in issuing, in deference to the wishes cf numerous practitioners, a Tariff of Medical Fees (founded upon that of the Manchester Medico-Ethical Association—an abstract of whose arguments in relation thereto, is herein embodied), deem it their duty most emphatically to disclaim the slightest wish or intention to dictate either to the members, or to other practitioners, in the matter of professional charges—which, so long as the medical and surgical, unlike the legal and other professions hesitate to base their title to remuneration upon the abstract value of their services, must, they feel assured, remain an open and vexed question. Although the General Medical Council alone could promulgate anything like a compulsory scale of charges, your Council are of opinion that a recommendatory/ Tariff wiU not only prove useful as a guide to the junior practitioner—often in doubt as to the remimeration to which he is fairly entitled—but serve as a reference in cases of dispute : and thus tend to prevent litigation, and promote a fi-iendly arrangement. The scale (a purely recommendatory one, be it noted), after much thoughtful con- sideration, and consultation with the general body of practitioners throughout the county, and adjacent districts, has been drawn at such a rate that the humblest member of the profession need not hesitate to make it the basis of his charges—a rate calculated, indeed, rather in accordance with past usage, than what is essential to the maintenance of the proper status of the profession—due regard being had to the diminished value of money, and the increase of wealth among the several classes of the community. Ere many years have elapsed, a higher Tariff will doubtless be necessary. In the mean- while, your Council would venture to express an earnest hope that every member, who, from seniority, or high professional status, may be in a position to do so, will not fail to charge higher fees, whenever the circumstances of the case justify them. Your Coiuicil, while fully admitting that the income, rather than the Jiouse rental of patients, is the true principle on which to found a Tariff, have nevertheless deemed it expedient to make the latter (as being the least open to objection,) the basis of their division into classes. Exceptional cases, they need scarcely remark, will of necessity occur, in which the practitioner must use his own discretion :—as, for instance, in the case of farmers, lodgers, and tradespeople—from the rental of which latter a liberal deduction may be made, when not incurred solely for personal or family convenience. On the whole, the following would seem to be a fair classification:— Class I, When the house rental is from £10. to £25. per annum. Class II. „ „ „ £25. to £60. „