Volume 3

The state and the doctor / by Sidney and Beatrice Webb.

  • Sidney Webb
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The state and the doctor / by Sidney and Beatrice Webb. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of sickness.1 Most emphatic and impressive of all has been the evidence in confirmation of Dr. Newsholme, given first as Medical Officer of Health for Brighton, and then on wider and fuller infor¬ mation, officially repeated by him as Medical Officer of the Local Government Board for England and Wales. “Under the present conditions of treatment of sickness for the poor,” says Dr. Newsholme, “ diagnosis is usually belated, treatment is curtailed, and its efficiency is correspondingly diminished. . . . I entertain, little hope of success [in respect of measles and whooping-cough] until more efficient medical attendance is promptly available in the homes of the very poor. . . . The divided responsi¬ bility as to cases of puerperal fever and erysipelas needing institutional treatment at the present time leads to inefficient arrangements for such cases, and to much suffering and some loss of life. . . . Such instances represent only a small part of the mischief caused by the division of responsibility and powers.” And he sums up significantly “ that the present division of medical duties is gravely mischievous to public health and the unification suggested is very desirable.”2 Such testimony, we feel, cannot be disregarded. Turning now to the supervision of the work of the 1 Report of the Poor Law Commission, 1909, Q. 56605, pars. 126-41, 155-62. 2 Memorandum by the Medical Officer of the Local Government Board on the Unification of the Official Medical Services for the Poor. {Ibid. Appendix No. iiv. to vol. ix. ; see also Qs. 92531-93029.) This consensus of weighty testimony is supported by the definite recommendations of the Vice-Regal Commission on the Irish Poor Law, in favour of the complete separation of all medical relief from the Poor Law, and the organisation, under the County and County Borough Councils, of a unified system of hospitals, dispensaries, and domiciliary treatment. (Report of the Vice-Regal Com¬ mission on Poor Law Reform in Ireland, 1906, vol. i. pp. 21-34.)
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