A text-book of medical jurisprudence and toxicology / by John Glaister.

  • John Glaister
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A text-book of medical jurisprudence and toxicology / by John Glaister. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    45/824 (page 19)
    company—have no right to examine the disabled employee or workman as they had under the Act of 1897. Section 8 (5) empowers the Secretary of State to confer upon any practitioner the powers and duties of a certifying surgeon under the Factory and Workshop Act, 1901. By paragraph 14 of the First Schedule, a workman must, if so re- quired by the employer, submit himself for examination to a medical practitioner ; and by paragraph 15, if he has done so, and has furnished the employer within six days after such examination with a copy of the report of that practitioner, failure to agree can only be determined by application of both parties to the official of the court to refer the matter to a medical referee. Here, it will be observed, if the workman do not become a party to the application, he cannot be compelled so to become ; in which case, however, his right to compensation and to take or prosecute any proceedings shall be suspended, until such examination has taken place. The practical effect, therefore, of this paragraph is to compel the workmen to submit himself for examination to a medical referee. When, however, the matter is referred, the medical referee shall have to determine (1) as to the condition of the workman relative to his fitness for employment, (2) the kind of employment for which he is fitted, and (3) to what extent the incapacity was due to the accident. A medical referee, in terms of section 8 (1) (/), may also be asked to review the decision of a certifying surgeon relating to a workman who is alleged to be suffering from any of the industrial diseases named in the Third Schedule, or of those which have been added since the passing of the Act. A certifying surgeon is empowered to certify that a workman is suffering from an industrial disease and is thereby disabled from work, and an employer or a workman may appeal from his decision on these points. If the medical referee grants a certificate of disablement on such appeal, the date of such disablement shall be such date as the medical referee may determine (sect. 8 [4] [a]). A medical referee may be called upon to decide whether the in- capacity of a workman from an injury is or is not likely to be of a per- manent character, so as to enable the court to determine the amount of compensation to be paid (Schedule I. [18]). In the appointment of medical referees, the Secretary of State for the Home Department has laid it down as a condition of appointment that the person to be appointed shall not retain any appointment which would be likely to interfere with his duties as referee, or to bias his judgment. Where a medical referee has been employed as a medical practitioner in connection with any case, he shall not act as a medical referee in that case. Under ordinary circumstances, certifying surgeons are appointed by the Home Secretary in accordance with regulations made under sect. 122 of the Factory Act of 1901, but if there be no certifying surgeon for a factory, the poor law medical officer, in terms of sect. 123 of that Act, acts as such. Any practitioner who acts in terms of the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1906, should take notes of the condition of the workman at the time of examination, and should send a written report of the examination to