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.

    232/284 (page 206)
    15 June, 1926. ] Dr. CHARLES [ Continued. 3391. It is the fact, is it not, that nursing homes so-called, that is to say, medical and surgical homes, do very often take in lying-in cases?—Oh yes, quite. 3392. Would you mix them up to gether?—I do not know what you mean by that quite. 3398. Would you have it as a general practice that all three types of cases should always be taken in a nursing home; that there should be no objection to taking maternity cases, medical cases and surgical cases all in the same home? —My answer to you is this, that the Medical Officer of Health in my district took lying-in cases into the fever hos- pital. We stopped that, I may tell you. 3394. Two blacks do not make a white. —I am only giving you that. 3395. That is not an answer to my question, if I may say so. Do you think it is advisable that maternity cases should be mixed up in nursing homes with medical and surgical cases and vice versa?—Yes, if they are properly iso- lated from each other, but not in these infectious diseases. You might have, for instance, a case of appendicitis in one place ; you might have a medical case of pneumonia in another, if you like; and you might have a lying-in case in an- other place. As long as they are properly separated and not attended under certain conditions by the same nurse—you want to watch that, gentlemen—I should not object. My case is that I do not want any more than two, ever. One is quite sufficient for me. It is only under special request that I take them in. 3396. If we come to the conclusion that the registration of nursing homes is advisable, would you think it also advisable that we should definitely lay down that medical and surgical nursing homes are not to take maternity cases. and that maternity cases are all to be taken in places where there. are nothing but maternity cases?—No, I do not think so at all. I think it would be absolutely absurd for many reasons. You might as well say. that a family cannot have a child with a sore throat in it and one with something else. People have to take certain risks in the world. The great thing is that you must have your home hygienic, and you must attend to the first laws of disinfection and that sort of thing. If you do that it does not matter. I would not have septic cases, I may tell you, near a maternity ease under any circumstances. 3397. To come down to your doctor’s private home, do you say that there is no need for any registration or any in- spection P—No. 3398. You have never known a doctor take a case into his house as a patient for gain without that patient being properly and adequately looked after with regard to medical and nursing treat- ment ?—I have never known it, and I can scarcely conceive it unless the doctor was mad or something of that sort. 3399. EKven supposing we grant that as being the case, you think that the per- sonal relations between the doctor, as you put down here, and the patient would be altered P—Yes. 3400. And would make it very much more difficult; why ?—Supposing that you had a patient; you have known the family for some years, and they have a delicate member of the family who wants some type of special treatment, and a good deal of that treatment might come under the heading of psychology, if you like— advice; you would have to see that patient twice a day. There are nervous people who have got absolute trust in their doctor, and if you are going to have inspection and supervision by, of all people, a man who has never been trained for it at all, like what I heard you sug- gest, the Medical Officer of Health for possible position aliogether—quite useless. 3401. It is not suggested that the Medical Officer of Health should come in and look after the patient’s health. It is only suggested that the Medical Oficer of Health should come in and see that the house is suitable for the purpose for which it is being used, that the nursing is adequate nursing, that the food and ~ such as they might expect.—Well, how could he do it? I do not see how it is possible. If two doctors in their own neighbourhood - signed, espécially for lying-in cases and that sort of thing, and said that a person’s house is suitable for this kind of thing, I think it is quite sufficient instead of having an army of officials which is against public pony. especially now. 3402. It might be quite possible that when the two medical gentlemen signed that their colleague was a suitable person and his house was suitable, that five years hence it might not be suitableP—Of course, there is an old saying that if the