The Health Services
1944-05 1944 1940s 23 pages 6 (b) Municipal General Hospitals. These are provided by local authorities from public funds. Most of them were formerly poor law institutions, now "appropriated" as general hospitals under the Local Government Act of 1929, and others were newly built....
| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
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| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
London : C. W. Publishing Ltd.
May 1944
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/DEE2AA23-EF36-44ED-B85E-094C29D43600 http://hdl.handle.net/10796/072EA217-3E8C-4802-B8C4-F4A124BDB90B |
| Summary: | 1944-05
1944
1940s
23 pages
6 (b) Municipal General Hospitals. These are provided by local authorities from public funds. Most of them were formerly poor law institutions, now "appropriated" as general hospitals under the Local Government Act of 1929, and others were newly built. Many of these hospitals still show traces of their Poor Law past, but some of them are rapidly improving. It was found in 1938 that two-thirds of the number of beds available for war emergency purposes were in municipal general hospitals and public assistance institutions and one-third in voluntary hospitals. Differences between the Two Types of Hospital. The main difference between voluntary and municipal hospitals apart from their methods of finance, are as follows : (a) Voluntary hospitals concentrate on acute cases and do not usually take chronic cases. Municipal hospitals must take all types of cases, but can only be used by residents in the area of the particular local authority. (b) Most voluntary hospitals only accept patients in their public wards who cannot afford private nursing home treatment, but many of them have private wards for paying patients. Municipal hospitals take all patients, but must try to recover cost of treatment from them. Voluntary hospitals may do so, and this is in fact the usual practice. (c) Voluntary hospitals do not usually pay their consultant and specialist staff. This custom originates from the time when only the "sick poor" were treated in these hospitals, and is now out of date. These medical men make their reputations through their work in hospitals and in this way hope to build up profitable private practices. In municipal hospitals the medical staff is salaried and appointments are permanent. (d) A voluntary hospital, which is an autonomous unit and responsible only to itself, is usually administered by a lay secretary, and the medical committee, representing the honorary staff, exercises a strong influence on its policy. On its governing board the most important subscribers to the hospital generally form the majority, but sometimes there may also be representatives of local authorities and contributory associations. In municipal hospitals the medical superintendent is responsible for all medical and administrative work to the medical officer of health and through him to the local public health committee. This method of administration restricts the freedom of the medical staff and it is urged that medical committees on the lines of those in voluntary hospitals should be formed. On the other hand the composition of the governing bodies of voluntary hospitals is undemocratic.
15X/2/98/10 |
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| Physical Description: | TEXT |