The report of a committee on the New Poor Law Act : appointed by the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, at its anniversary meeting, held at Oxford, and read at the anniversary meeting, held at Manchester, July 21st, 1836.
- Provincial Medical and Surgical Association. Poor-Law Committee
- Date:
- 1836
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The report of a committee on the New Poor Law Act : appointed by the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, at its anniversary meeting, held at Oxford, and read at the anniversary meeting, held at Manchester, July 21st, 1836. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![licts existed between the parisli authorities and the resident ])ractitioner, by which the former were supplied with medical attendance for the sick paupers, at “ a small fixed sum,” on “ condition” of the latter being allowed to charge distant parishes exhorbitantly and dishonestly for the relief afforded to extra parishioners. A more unfounded charge was, perhaps, hardly ever made by the organs of Government against an intelligent and useful portion of society. The Commissioners have attributed an evil, which inevitably resulted from the old parochial system, to these imaginary compacts and “ conditions.” It was im- possible that attendance on non-parishioners could be con- tracted for under the former Poor Law; unless, indeed, all the parishes in the kingdom could have come to a mutual agTeement. The laws of settlement were, therefore, the cause of this imperfection in the medical arrangements, which was as injurious to practitioners as to the rate-payers. The Commissioners have apparently forgotten to notice the numei’ous cases in which medical men were defrauded of their just claims, by the refusal of the parish officers to discharge accounts incurred for attendance on extra-parishioners, for which they had given no written order; thus taking disho- nourable advantage of the well-known readiness of our body to attend the wants of the poor, without any security for payment. Your Committee have received information from several practitioners that, “ in the great majority of instances,” their bills on distant parishes have, for the above reason, never been paid. The Commissioners designate these charges as being “ at the highest rates,” and speak of the “ profits” thus acquired by the attendant. If it be deemed necessary to refute a calumny which, until the Poor Law Commissioners had uttered it, had proceeded only from the ignorant or the vulgar, we should be disposed to enquire—By what authority do the Commis- sioners constitute themselves judges of the projiriety of medi- cal charges ?—On what pretext do they denominate the well- earned remuneration of professional men, their “ profits](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22389738_0053.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
