The labour movement and the hospital crisis
1922 1922 1920s 21 pages question. Under the existing shortage of hospital accommodation and the understaffing of out-patient departments, a letter of recommendation from a general practitioner to a member of the medical staff, to whom he sends cases in private, will often ensure to the bearer certa...
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| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
| Language: | English English |
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London ; published by the Trades Union Congress and the Labour Party
[1922]
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/176EB5EC-05EE-4F70-89A7-DECDD478A478 http://hdl.handle.net/10796/7ED161CF-201C-4D75-884C-665C786D8100 |
| Summary: | 1922
1922
1920s
21 pages
question. Under the existing shortage of hospital accommodation and the understaffing of out-patient departments, a letter of recommendation from a general practitioner to a member of the medical staff, to whom he sends cases in private, will often ensure to the bearer certain preferential treatment. For example, such cases are invariably seen by the consultant himself, whilst others may have to content themselves with an assistant; they are generally seen early, while others may have to wait for hours; if admission is necessary, they often secure precedence over those who have been on the waiting list, perhaps, for many months. What with the lay-management's desire to keep on good terms with large subscribers and the consultants with general practitioners, all the available beds are too often fully occupied, leaving no room for those who have no influence to assist them in gaining admission. In other instances a general practitioner will send a patient to see a consultant privately with a note saying that the patient can only afford a consultation fee, and, therefore, should operation or special treatment be necessary, would he take him into hospital. Under these circumstances, the consultant feels himself under some obligation, not only to the general practitioner, but in a way to the patient himself, and he therefore secures his admission to hospital at the earliest possible moment. Indeed, the "man in the street" is beginning to realise that a consultation with a member of a hospital staff will generally secure to him early admission to hospital, should it be necessary, and he pays the fee willingly for the privilege it carries with it. PRESENT TREND: ITS ADVANTAGES AND DANGERS As far as General Hospitals are concerned, events seem to be moving in two main directions: first, towards the introduction of a far more orderly arrangement of hospital services with increased accommodation; and secondly, towards perpetuating the principle of Voluntary Hospitals by new methods of raising the necessary money. Labour's Scheme The Labour Party was first in the field in advocating a co-ordinated system of hospitals, or, as it called them, "Health Centres." * Starting in outlying urban districts and in the rural areas with receiving stations, these were to be connected with the nearest local or cottage hospitals by means of motor ambulances and telephone; these again in the same way were to be in direct communication with the nearest large General Hospital, the county hospital, and finally all hospitals were to be in touch with the national hospitals situated in the university towns. This idea has since been worked out and actually put into practice by the Gloucestershire County Council under the guidance of their Medical Officer, Dr. Middleton Martin, but it only deals so far with patients for whom the public authorities are responsible. The idea has also been worked out on paper in even greater detail by the Consultative Council of the Ministry of Health on Medical and Allied Services and published in their Interim Report. Further, the Final Report of the Voluntary Hospitals Committee fully recognises the necessity of far more co-ordination between the different hospitals and between them and the Poor Law Infirmaries as a means towards efficiency and economy. Isolated hospitals, each a law * Labour Party Memorandum on the Organisation of the Preventative and Curative Medical Services and Hospital and Laboratory Systems (6d., post free 7d.). 7
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