Report from the Select Committee on Nursing Homes (Registration).

Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on Nursing Homes (Registration)

Date:: 1926

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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report from the Select Committee on Nursing Homes (Registration). Source: Wellcome Collection.

231/284 (page 205)

15 June, 1926. ] 205 [ Continued. 3375. You would prefer that he came himself to you than sent one of his deputies ?>—Yes. 3376. You think it is likely probably of Health being responsible for the inspection of a doctor’s premises he would come himself in the ordinary way most likely; that would be the natural pro- fessional course, would it not?—Well, I imagine he would be appointed especially for that like the visitors in Lunacy. 3377. That is not what has been sug- gested to us at the present time, but that the responsible body for inspecting, as in maternity hospitals, should be either the Local Authority or the Borough Council, which of course would not be people of quite the same position as the inspectors of Lunacy ?—Well, I should not so, perhaps rudely, to come. I would rather have a top man. 3378. But you would be satisfied if the County Medical Officer of Health was the inspecting person ?—Certainly. 3379. And you would not object to such visits as it was necessary for him to pay? —No. So far as I .am concerned, I do not object to anything; is it simply the way they do it—that is what I mean. 3380. You could probably trust the Medical Officer of Health of the County to do that.—Yes, professionally he would 3381. Have you in your experience come across homes of such a nature as you run which you would describe as not satisfactory; have you had experience of such homes run by doctors?—No, I have no personal experience. 3382. You have heard of such things? —Well, they occasionally appear in the papers, you know. 3383. That being so, do you think that it would guard such homes as your own that there should be registration and, where necessary, inspection from the pro- fessional point of view?—Yes, to a cer- tain extent, I do. Mind you,-I am not objecting to the thing at all; really and truly I am not indeed. I think there are some homes which it would be very advisable to have inspected, and I should not lke to say that they were not to be inspected. They are more what IT call nursing homes, where the doctor attends now and again, where it is run by a person for money, where they have a certain amount of so-called nurses, and where the patients are certainly not looked after as well as they ought to be. 3384. It would therefore be a protec- tion to those who do look after their homes properly that there should be some form of registration and, where neces- sary, inspection?—Of that kind, yes— the ordinary nursing home. do all that. It is more of a social mat- Chairman.| Thank you. We are ter with me than professional. obliged to you for your evidence. (The witness withdrew.) . Dr. CHarues F. Scort, Chairman. 3385. Do you keep a nursing home?— Yes, I keep my private house. I[ am speaking more of the occasional patient which I take into my own house, and of course I can speak about nursing homes too, if you want it. 3386. You know something about nurs- ing homes?—I do, yes. 3387. Generally you are not in favour of registration, I gather from your paper?—The registration of a doctor’s private house to my mind is entirely un- necessary; at least I do not think it is necessary at all; there is no public de- mand for it. 3888. We have been told that there is no public demand for registration of any nursing home; you would not agree with that ?—No. 3389. You would think there is some demand from the public?—I think from the public’s point of view that there may be a demand for the registration of nurs- ing homes. For instance, I think in the sort it is somewhat necessary. 3390. You would draw a distinction between the lying-in home and_ the nursing home?P—yYes, I should, because one thing is a very common thing, and it is a kind of natural process, an ordinary thing, and you want to see, at any rate, that the places that take in people for gain should, at any rate, have the first principle of cleanliness and that sort of thing there.