General Medical Service for the Nation : The Question of Medical Institutions and Hospitals
1938-07-06 1938 1930s 4 pages -2- 4. There was first the development of the system of officers called Lady Almoners, by which patients were questioned as to their ability to make some contribution towards the cost of their treatment. This has gradually developed into a fine art, and though it is do...
| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
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| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
6 July 1938
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/28999778-D88D-45F0-8EB1-B48802E2D32E http://hdl.handle.net/10796/35FD765E-AF4E-45BD-8503-236B60EED038 |
| Summary: | 1938-07-06
1938
1930s
4 pages
-2- 4. There was first the development of the system of officers called Lady Almoners, by which patients were questioned as to their ability to make some contribution towards the cost of their treatment. This has gradually developed into a fine art, and though it is done more by question and persuasion as a voluntary contribution, it amounts nevertheless, by some of the methods adopted, which vary in different hospitals, to a form of economic pressure. This system has now been in vogue in most of the voluntary hospitals throughout the country for many years, and as subscriptions from charitable sources were proving less and less sufficient, other methods had to be adopted for increasing the voluntary contributions to the hospitals. At present there are contributory schemes in almost all parts of the country, by which about 10,000,000 persons subscribe in small sums towards the upkeep of the Voluntary Hospitals and the Voluntary Hospital System. Many of these schemes have now begun to be co-ordinated with a central body acting co-operatively in their efforts. This, however, has entailed very little change in the Management Boards of the hospitals, and there has been no considered plan for the representation of these contributors to contributory schemes as a settled procedure on the Management Boards of Voluntary Hospitals. There are exceptions in certain regions and towns of Great Britain, but in the main it may be said that the body of small contributors paying their dues by means of the contributory schemes (and included in the schemes are such organisations as the Hospital Savings Association and similar bodies) have no representatives on the Boards of Management of Voluntary Hospitals. No machinery has been evolved for such representation. There is an important principle of "No taxation without representation". It seems to me that with regard to the Voluntary Hospital System there should be at least a principle established of "No contribution without representation". These Voluntary Hospitals, too, tend to be scattered in regions and in cities where the larger subscribers care to have them established. No attempts have been made to place hospitals in growing and developing areas where they are most required. Up to quite recently there was no inter-hospital co-operation. In some centres now, like Manchester and Birmingham, there are schemes set up by means of which hospitals can be co-ordinated; but there is no central settled scheme for this growing need. 5. Side by side with this system of the Voluntary Hospital, which is having a great difficulty in raising finance, and which has to adopt street collections and various methods of publicity, in addition to those mentioned above, there is arising, since the passing of the Local Government Act of 1928-9; the competition of the Municipal Hospitals. The Poor Law hospital, which previously had been confined strictly to the treatment of the destitute poor under Poor Law legislation, was freed by this Act from these restrictions, and became open to all the inhabitants of the area of the different Authorities without any stigma attaching to the Poor Law. 6. The Municipal Hospitals since that time have been constantly improving in every direction; in size, accommodation, equipment, site of buildings, and in medical
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