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.

    233/284 (page 207)
    15 June, 1926.] [ Continued. skies would fall we might catch larks, but the thing does not happen. 3405. You have such great faith in your brethren of the profession I do not think they would become doctors at all otherwise. 3404. that if they had got such a home everything would go on straight and well?—I think it would go on quite well. As one of the members of your Committee was President of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh, he knows the sort of men that are medical men. Dr. Shiels. 8405..Do you not think that you are exaggerating a little the function of an inspecting officer ? Is there any reason why this patient of yours should know any- thing about the visit at all?—Yes; if he is going to inspect at all I do not see how it can be avoided, If the inspector is going to look at the patients to see whether they are in decent physical con- dition or not, I do not see how it can be avoided. 38406. I do not think that has ever been suggested. There is the matter of the premises, there is the sanitation, there is the quarters where the nurses stay, and so on. The problem in the case of an individual patient such as yours would be a very small one, and probably would make the inspection merely nominal, but you realise, do you not, the difficulty that would be involved in any general exclusion of a particular class of case from inspection? Perhaps it will surprise you to know, and I am sorry that I have to say this, that we have had evidence which seemed very credible that certain of these homes were not what we would like. It is obvious that in a pro- fession which we all admire, and I think with good cause, there are one or two black sheep inevitably P—There are bound to be. 3407. Some of us think that it might be in the interests of 99 per cent. of the medical profession, even of those who have such homes, that this inspection should take place rather than that the one black sheep should be allowed to ‘give ’a bad impression of the medical profession; do you not agree with that? -—No. I think from the point of view of the public itself, if you are going to guard against everything in this world you would have such a multitude of officials that finally there will be two classes of people, the people who work and the people that watch them do it. 3408. Of course, I quite understand your objection to bureaucracy, but the thing does not arise very much here. There would be, say, an inspection once a year, and in the case of your own house where you have one patient that would probably be a very nominal inspection. The inspecting person would be a person of some discretion and authority, and I do not think there would be anything to fear in the psycho- logical effect on your patient at all; there is no reason why the patient should know anything about it?—Of course, if the patient is not to be seen at all, then the patient would not ob- ject. I know patients who would object to any official coming in, in just the same way the person who has got the great- est power under the National Insurance Act is the patient. 3409. There are other cases; for instance, we have had cases of so-called nursing homes where these chronic poor cases who have rheumatoid arthritis and such things are lying there; they are only paying 25s. Od. to 30s. Od. a week, and they are not properly attended to. In that class of homes [I think the inspecting officer might reasonably pay some attention to the patients, but in other cases that might not be necessary. —Supposing you had a poor person suf- fering from rheumatoid arthritis or one of these senile cases, and their relatives will not allow them to go into a Poor Law infirmary or anything of that kind. They are awfully keen to go into some place where they can pay, we will say, 30s. Od. or £2 a week, which of course is far too little for a case of that sort. What on earth can inspection do to keep that patient even from getting bed sores? It can only draw attention to it. The nurse says: ‘‘I have done all T can do for 30s. Od. I have tried to prevent bed sores. I cannot be with other patients to see to.’’ I know cases like that at the present time. I know them even at five guineas a week. I+ seems to me that inspection of a good many of these homes, as long as you do not get the Dotheboy’s Hall element, which you have always to look for, would make it necessary to have such a large number of inspectors that the country would be better served by one of these patients going over the top for the