Observations on the arrangements connected with the relief of the sick poor : addressed in a letter to the Right Honourable the Lord John Russell, Secretary of State for the Home Department / by John Yelloly.

  • John Yelloly
Date:
1837
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the arrangements connected with the relief of the sick poor : addressed in a letter to the Right Honourable the Lord John Russell, Secretary of State for the Home Department / by John Yelloly. 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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    represented as being the best judges of the value of tlieir own time and services, and so they certainly are ; but this is like- wise the case with persons in other professions and lines of life ; and it does not prevent those who may have occasion for the services of the latter, from employing the usual means of inquiry and observation, to satisfy themselves as to the proper and reasonable extent of remuneration. The salaries of auditors and relieving officers have been determined on this principle, without tender, and without competition, ex- cept as to fitness for office; though there has been as much apparent disparity in the positions, and much more in the ranks of life of candidates for the former appointments, (one of them in this county being a baronet,) than can be expected to exist in the medical profession. It would certainly have been satisfactory and appropriate to consult independent mem- bers of the profession itself, as to what might be regarded as fair elements for fixing on remuneration ; but I would submit whether it is not somewhat ungracious to appear to pay medical men a compliment by inviting them to fix their own terms, when the opinion is to be employed, not in order to communicate information for the purpose of assisting the judgment of their employers in fixing on a fair and proper remuneration, but to place gentlemen in opposition to each other, that their services may be obtained at the smallest possible amount. It is stated. Indeed, that there is no actual obligation to accept the lowest offer; yet there is, unquestionably, an implied one, unless for an adequate reason to the contrary, which the good character and fiilr preten- sions of most candidates will necessarily make a very rare occurrence. But even then the advantage is entirely with the employer; for the candidate contends in the dark, and with- out the usual benefits which attach to competitors for ordinary contracts; for he is generally made to understand that his propo.sals are not to be beyond a certain fixed, and sometimes very inadequate amount. In considering the means by which any satisfactory conclu- sions can be arrived at in respect to the expenditure necessary
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