How the minority report deals with the sick, the infirm, and the infants / The National Committee to Promote the Break-up of the Poor Law.

  • National Committee to Promote the Break-up of the Poor Law.
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: How the minority report deals with the sick, the infirm, and the infants / The National Committee to Promote the Break-up of the Poor Law. 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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    How the Minority Report deals with the Sick, the Infirm, and the Infants. (a) The Existing Muddle. When the present Poor Law was established it comprised within itself the whole of what little public provision was then made for the sick or infirm poor, or for maternity and infancy. To-day we are spending in the United Kingdom out of the rates and taxes not less than six or seven millions sterling annually on these services, by different public authorities, with an amount of overlapping, duplication, waste, and muddle that is almost incredible. The Minority Report describes, in vivid detail, how there are throughout the United Kingdom, at the present time, two separate and distinct public authorities dealing with the sick poor: the Poor Law Authority, providing medical attendance, nursing and medicine, and often institutional treatment, for destitute sick persons whatever their diseases; and the Local Health Authority, providing, in the same area, medical attendance, nursing and medicine, together with institutional treatment where required, for persons, whatever their affluence, suffer- ing from certain specific diseases. Alongside of these two ubiquitous rate-supported Medical Services, we find a whole array of medical charities of one sort or another, dealing with essentially the same classes of persons and many of the same diseases. (b) The Medical Service of the Poor Law. Of the million of simultaneous paupers, probably 250,000 are definitely ill, requiring, primarily, not maintenance, but appropriate medical treatment. These are attended to in England and Wales by nearly 3,800 Poor Law doctors, and in Scotland by over 1,000—nearly always local practitioners who are paid a quite inadequate stipend to look after the