Report as to the practice of medicine and surgery by unqualified persons in the United Kingdom.

  • Great Britain. Local Government Board
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report as to the practice of medicine and surgery by unqualified persons in the United Kingdom. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    18/92 (page 16)
    the absence of advice as to preventive measures, the disease is frequently communicated to others. In many cases it only comes under the care of medical practitioners when symptoms of secondary or tertiary syphilis manifest themselves. TREATMENT OF EYE DISEASES. (a) Extent of Practice. In the treatment of eye diseases imqualified practice seems to be rapidly on the increase, especially in the larger centres of population ; in many places ophthalmic work is stated to be passing into the hands of unqualified persons. Such unqualified practitioners may be classed under the following heads— (1) Chemists.—Examples of such practice by chemists are quoted on page 3. Their assumption of such titles as Ophthalmologist, and Qualified Ophthalmic Optician, and the addition to theii- names of such letters as F.I.O., F.S.M.C. (Lond.), &c., lea-d the public to believe that they are fully qualified medical practitioners. Evidence to this effect is furnished by several Medical Officers of Health. (2) Unqualified Oculists.—Many opticians prescribe and sell spectacles which are unsuitable and at the same time fail to recognise serious disease which may be present. Some unqualified oculists advertise largely, and travel up and down the country. One of these also practises as an aurist, does a large amount of such work. He appears to visit all parts of the country, announcing his visits beforehand in the local press. The public are undoubtedly misled into the belief that these men are properly qualified to practise. (3) Jewellers and Watchmakers.—A large number prescribe and supply spectacles. (4) Quacks, Avho specialise in eye diseases, are still met with, although their trade appears to be declining. The working class public are losing confidence in the men who in former times held reputations for extracting fires, or bits of metal, &c., from the eye. This is attributed to the advance in education. Unqualified practice in eye diseases is a pressing question, on account of the difficulty which exists in obtaining expert advice from a registered medical practitioner. A Medical Officer of Health pomts out that comparatively few medical men are qualified to do ophthalmic work, or can afford the time required for it, and that medical men do not take much interest in seeing that their patients go to the proper quarter. He adds that a large number of persons consider that it is not a matter upon which they should consult their medical adviser. It is no doubt lai'gcly due to this belief of the public and to the dearth of skilled medical advice in eye diseases that unqualified practice in this class of work has attained to such large proportions. Another factor in its increase is attributed by several Medical Officers of Health to the working of the Education (Administrative Provisions) Act, 1907, the ])arcnts of children who Jiave been found