Hospital reform : revised report of a speech, delivered at the general meeting of the Medico-Political Association, held in Birmingham, April 17, 1868 / by Sampson Gamgee.

  • Sampson Gamgee
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hospital reform : revised report of a speech, delivered at the general meeting of the Medico-Political Association, held in Birmingham, April 17, 1868 / by Sampson Gamgee. 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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    manner which leaves very much to be desired, especially in the out-patient departments, which appear to be peculiar to the English Hospitals. In this district the out-patients are professedly seen by the Honorary Physicians and Surgeons, who also have care of the wards; while in London the out- patients are the charge of a special set of officers. Practically both here and in London a very considerable proportion of the out-patients are never seen by the honorary officers, but by senior students or the residents. In many cases persons applying at an Hospital, frequently travelling many miles, in the hope of having the advice of a particular physician or surgeon, have no chance of seeing him; and if they do, they will probably be seen in the strictly literal sense, for the patients are often passed before the prescriber at a rate varying from 60 to 120 an hour, inclusive of new cases;—this being not a guess but an accurate numerical statement. Even junior residents who have not the advantage of assistants as the honorary officers have, not unfrequently see from forty to sixty patients an hour. How is there anything in medicine ? If not, let us be honest enough to say so. If we believe there is something in it, as there unquestionably is, do not let us continue the principal actors in a sham,—a sham on science, on charity, and humanity itself. What right have we, under the circumstances, to encourage the popular and groundless delusion, that hospital out-patient work is done any better than club or parish practice ? One of the greatest evils of the system is that it lowers medicine in practice to the mere art of ad- ministering physic in all cases, to the neglect of full
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