On representative government in the British Medical Association / by Sampson Gamgee.

  • Sampson Gamgee
Date:
[1883]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On representative government in the British Medical Association / 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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    British Medical Association all the ])o\ver is vested in the Committee of Council, which is sheltered from direct responsibility to the entire constituency, by the interposition of the dormant General Council which is practically destitute of all resources and checks for efficient control. The elected Members of the Committee of Council are sandwiched between two sets of ex-officio members, the ex-Presidents, who are vice-Presidents for life, and the Secr.;taries of Branches. The raisoti d'etre of the former is, that having great knowledge of the affairs of the Association, they are likely to be very useful in its government; while the Secretaries of Branches know the require- ments of their j)articular districts, and are therefore specially com- petent to represent them. General experience i)roves that ex-officio governors are relatively irresponsible, and not very often efficient. Branch Secretaries in a few instances have been most valuable on our Committee of Council. But, as a body, they have been a failure. They are almost always men of superior ability and social status, frequently young, usually much engaged, and not always indifferent to the expense and time of journeys to London. Some of our vice-Presidents have been very pillars of our state : but it does not require much experience of life to understand the predominating influence at the same Council Board, which life members must exercise on colleagues, who are removable year by year, and whose election mainly depends upon a house-list drawn up by the Committee of Council. Theoretically this executive govern- ment is responsible to the Council of the Association ; but as this only meets once a year, as the medical press is excluded from its deliberations, and the pressure of business at Annual Meetings is overwhelming, the co-optative executive is master of the situation. Sir Charles Hastings, at the Birmingham meeting of 1855, proposed That the Council of the Association be elected on the principle of absolute representation, so that each member of the general body may have, by his representative, a voice in the management of its affairs. Only the difficulties of the moment