General Medical Service for the Nation : The Question of Medical Institutions and Hospitals
1938-07-06 1938 1930s 4 pages -3- and nursing staffing. The ratepayers are becoming more hospital minded, and consequently these hospitals are finding themselves frequently better equipped and with as competent a staff as the voluntary hospitals. Quite a contrast to the previous decades. 7. From t...
| 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/CA5EE93B-D400-4256-A8A4-908E7B052BAA http://hdl.handle.net/10796/497E456B-E126-4498-A68D-9ABB1CE9C704 |
| Summary: | 1938-07-06
1938
1930s
4 pages
-3- and nursing staffing. The ratepayers are becoming more hospital minded, and consequently these hospitals are finding themselves frequently better equipped and with as competent a staff as the voluntary hospitals. Quite a contrast to the previous decades. 7. From the above it will be seen that just as there has been a general widening of the medical front from the point of view of medical practitioners generally, so there has been a widening of the front from the point of view of medical institutions and hospitals. The reaction of the public to the hospital system has been changing, as the public have been becoming more health and hospital-minded interested. 8. Contributory schemes with regard to hospitals are increasing. Ratepayers are grumbling less about cost of health administration, and though this question is of particular interest to the health-minded general public and requires grave consideration by a National Medical Service, it has scarcely been mentioned in the B.M.A. brochure. 9. The Voluntary Hospitals then are at present only voluntary institutions in the sense that contributions for their upkeep are not made compulsorily, as a result of an insurance scheme or as the result of payment by rates. It is voluntary too in that the administration or Board of Management is by selected groups of large subscribers, with frequently the patronage of Royal or Noble personages, and of selected personnel. 10. While, therefore, the contributions are becoming more and more extended on a wider public front, the actual management is still being confined in voluntary non-representative hands, and the appointments of the staff, both medical and lay, are therefore in the hands of non-representative bodies, without any say from the subscribers or from the public generally. This has remained so even when, as in some areas, there have been contributions to the upkeep of the hospital in the shape of contributions from Local Authorities in special schemes, and as in the case of the grants from certain Borough Councils to certain large Voluntary Hospitals. 11. The B.M.A. express the opinion that "practical considerations" ensure that "the inclusion of hospital provision in an insurance service is not possible", but no grounds are set out for this view. 12. Any consideration of a National Medical Service will have to take into account the existence of the two Hospital systems, the absence of any correlation between them as at present, and the need for their co-ordination and co-operation. The special character of the Voluntary Hospital System too will have to be considered, with its selected management and the frequent inadequacy of hospital accommodation in old-fashioned buildings, and the possible existence of a large body of Trade Union members in any large contributory scheme.
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| Physical Description: | TEXT |