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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    door colleagues send their Unqualified Assistants to do tlie parish work, without question asked, as my out-door colleagues did in days gone by.” “ Cases are quite common where Parochial Medical Officers keep Unqualified Assistants.” “The Local Government Board (and the Poor-Law Board before them), pretend to compel the Medical attendance on the Poor, to be given by qualified men; they direct that every Medical Man upon his election as Medical Officer to the Guardians, shall appoint a legally qualified Medical Man to act as his deputy, in illnesses where he cannot himself personally attend. Where this Rule is departed from, the fault lies : first—with the Clerk* of the Guardians ; secondly—with the Guardians themselves.”— Letter of a Poor-Law Medical Officer. It is with much reluctance that we have deemed it imperative to introduce the word “ Fraud ” into our Title Page, and we for a long time hesitated to do so; but we have failed to find another word approaching to an equivalent, or to define the difference between the person who, contracting with a Board of Guardians to give, personallyf, skilled Medical treatment to sick and aged sufferers, foists another and inferior thing on them ; and the Baker who falls short of his undertaking by supplying a light loaf. “ The practice of Poor-Law Surgeons leaving the attendance on the Sick to Unqualified Assistants is not only a breach of contract, for which they are liable to dismissal, but is a fraud J * See Appendix. f Every Officer shall perform his duties in person, and shall not intrust the same to a Deputy, except with the official permission of the Com- missioners, on the application of the Guardians.—Order of Poor-Law Board. [C. H.] Every Medical Officer shall be bound to visit, and attend personally, as far as may be practicable, the poor persons intrusted to his care, and shall be responsible for the attendance on them.—Order of the Poor-Laiv Board. [C. H.] X Section 98 of the Poor-Law Act enacts:—“ That in case any person shall wilfully neglect, or disobey any of the rules, orders, or regulations, of the said Commissioners (Local Government Board), such person shall, upon conviction, forfeit and pay for the first offence, any sum not exceeding five pounds; for the second offence, any sum not exceeding twenty pounds, nor less than five pounds ; and in the event of such person being convicted a third time, such third and every subsequent offence shall be deemed a misdemeanour, and such offender shall be liable to be indicted for the same offence, and shall, on conviction, pay such fine, not being less than twenty pounds, and suffer such imprisonment, with or without hard labour, as may be awarded against him.” [C. H.j