The position of the general medical practitioners in a reorganised system of public health
1919 1919 1910s 18 pages II. The Position of the General Medical Practitioners in a Reorganised System of Public Health. SOME SUGGESTIONS. The position and place of general practitioners under the scheme of a Health Ministry will need careful consideration. It is desirable that the health conscience...
| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
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| Language: | English English |
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London : Co-operative Printing Society
[1919?]
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/E970BB43-9ADA-4B61-A96D-A153F8039893 http://hdl.handle.net/10796/C251D725-B780-47C5-B5FA-87EC7DD2FF03 |
| Summary: | 1919
1919
1910s
18 pages
II. The Position of the General Medical Practitioners in a Reorganised System of Public Health. SOME SUGGESTIONS. The position and place of general practitioners under the scheme of a Health Ministry will need careful consideration. It is desirable that the health conscience of the community should become part of the national habits, it cannot be imposed from above downwards unless at the same time developed from below upwards, partly by the slow process of popular education in the schools, and by other agencies; and more rapidly by enlisting the sympathy and active help of every medical practitioner working amongst the people and in their homes. A practical scheme could be devised to subsidise such State Service on the part of the general practitioner, by paying him definite remuneration according to the responsibilities undertaken, and in return requiring service in certain regards as to certification of births, disease, deaths, attendance on urgency cases when summoned by the police, or by a midwife, sanitary conditions of housing, food, water, employment, and other reports required by municipal or State medical officers, coroners, and so on. Of these services some at present are either inadequately paid, or not paid for at all; some are discharged in a perfunctory way, and in other cases the services are not expected from the family doctor. The systematic performance of these services, adequately remunerated, should result in every family doctor, say, some 20,000, becoming the medical officer of health of the home and a servant of the State, in this semi-official State Service. The cost to the nation should be small in comparison with the benefit to be attained. In addition to these duties, and apart from private practice, practitioners if suitably qualified should be encouraged to hold a minor public appointment, such as local doctor for (a) schools, (b) treatment clinics, (c) factories, (d) police, (e) medical referees, and other similar purposes. These appointments should be stereotyped financially and made interchangeable, as involving definite proportions of time for service. Other special posts, as tuberculosis officer, officers to V.D. clinics, pensions officer, legal, medical assessors, might be reserved for specialists or consultants. HOSPITALS. — With respect to hospitals, the policy endorsed by the Sub-Committee may be thus outlined.:— The provision of complete and sufficient hospital accommodation throughout the country is a public obligation. The free use of such accommodation should be the right of every citizen. Where there is inadequate accommodation the local authorities must either provide new institutions or secure additions to existing hospitals. The payment of public money for the provision or maintenance of hospital accommodation necessarily carries with it an adequate degree of public control. An important function of the Ministry of Health will be either directly or through appropriate local authorities to supplement existing hospital accommodation, and to secure co-ordination (i.) between hospitals and other institutions for the care and treatment of persons suffering from disease, (ii.) between the various hospitals themselves, and (iii.) between the treatment provided at hospitals and that provided by practitioners in their private consulting rooms or in the patients' homes. Additional accommodation will be required to supplement the admitted deficiencies of hospital beds (especially for women and children) in most parts of 11
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