Statement of the grievances of the poor law medical officers : with remarks on sanitary measures and vaccination, addressed to the Right-Hon. Viscount Palmerston ... / by Richard Griffin.

  • Griffin, Richard.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Statement of the grievances of the poor law medical officers : with remarks on sanitary measures and vaccination, addressed to the Right-Hon. Viscount Palmerston ... / by Richard Griffin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    attainment of which has cost on an average little less then £1000,) bodily fatigue and mental anxiety. These I presume have hitherto been regarded as above price, assuredly no price has been paid for them, but is this just? can it be permitted to continue ? I unhesitatingly declare the system of payment to the»medical officer is cruel in the extreme; it is a system that is based either on the robbery of the Medical Officers or of the poor; in either case it is a stigma on the nation that countenances it now that its abuses are clearly pointed out. How has it acted hitherto? the majority of the Medical Officers are high-principled men, and have faithfully discharged their duties to the poor, giving them Quinine, Cod Liver Oil, Sarsaparilla, Leeches, &c, when required, which their niggardly salaries never paid for, they have therefore literally relieved them out of their own pockets. Others there are, who have not the private means to purchase these expensive drugs, the result of which is that Hospitals and Dispensaries are crowded with supplicants for relief, and the ratepayers burdened with the support of their families, which would not be the case, if a fair remuneration were made to the Medical Officer. To obviate this discreditable state of matters, I propose that each Medical Officer shall receive for professional skill, bodily toil, and mental anxiety, 2s. 6d. each case, a small sum when it is considered that the duration of illness averages upwards of one month, and that in my own case I have paid on an average ten visits to each patient, a fair sample of the whole. The payments will stand thus:— s. d. Drugs per case 1 6 Use of Surgery, Dispensing Medicine, &c. ... 1 0 Professional advice and visits 2 6 5 0 In country districts an additional allowance should be made for the cost of a horse, gig, and man servant, which are imperatively necessary—these at the lowest computation, one year with the other, amount to £87 6s., as the following items shew :— £ s. d. Annual deterioration of horse from injuries, \ lft 0 n ill health, age, or death j Food 30 0 0 Shoeing and Clipping or singeing in winter... 2 10 0 Man Servant, wages, food and tax 25 0 0 Gig repairs and replacing 10 0 0 Duty on horse and gig 1 16 0 Harness, repairing and replacing 3 0 0 Stable 5 0 0 £87 6 0 My own expenses for the above, average about £100 per annum. It may be urged that a gig need not be kept, but it is impossible for a Medical Man always to ride, the fatigue is too great, and a horse con- tinually at work gets weak in the knees, which renders him unsafe, and a Union Medical Officer cannot afford to be frequently changing. Some may say the same horse, &rc, will do for private as well as Union practice, but it must be borne in mind that a young Surgeon taking the appoint- ment, will for the first few years have little, if any, private practice, and in many instances the Union duty is the entire work of one horse, nay, some- times of two ; but even if it be used for the private patients, which are few compared with the paupers, it must be recollected the country Surgeon has no other compensation beyond that allowed the Medical Man resident in a town, though he has to endure great loss of time in travelling immense distances, and has to undergo an enormous amount of mental and bodily fatigue, out at all hours and in all weather, exposed to the pitiless storm, frequently drenched to the skin, and passing the greater part of