The labour movement and the hospital crisis
1922 1922 1920s 21 pages The Dawson Report recommends that all hospital patients should be paid for, either by the patients themselves, by some form of insurance, or by the Public Health Authorities. Here again is the same tendency towards looking to public funds for the support of the hospitals. Al...
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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/10796/9662670D-A188-4ECD-B913-C06A4AD4028F http://hdl.handle.net/10796/239D40F2-8A3D-49F7-A5EE-AF7AAE9AEFA3 |
| Summary: | 1922
1922
1920s
21 pages
The Dawson Report recommends that all hospital patients should be paid for, either by the patients themselves, by some form of insurance, or by the Public Health Authorities. Here again is the same tendency towards looking to public funds for the support of the hospitals. All things considered, Labour welcomes State and municipal grants towards Voluntary Hospitals pending the establishment of a complete publicly supported and controlled hospital service. It does so for the following reasons :— (1) The hospitals, as hospitals, are necessary for the public welfare, and therefore cannot be allowed to close their doors or their wards for lack of funds. (2) Public grants are the thin end of the wedge, leading to a public hospital service. (3) As the State and municipal contributions increase, voluntary subscriptions are sure to grow less. (4) The less the voluntary subscriptions the more completely will the hospitals pass under the financial control of public authorities. With complete financial control the management must also pass into the hands of public authorities, till at last all hospitals will be owned, controlled and managed by the public bodies. Nevertheless, it is, in the meanwhile, most important to insist that wherever and whenever public funds are employed, there shall be public representatives both on the committees who allocate public moneys and on the governing bodies which use them. PAYMENT OF HOSPITAL STAFFS It must be further noted that the large amounts which are now being paid by various public bodies to the Voluntary Hospitals for services rendered is bringing about a new development in connection with the medical staffs of hospitals, which is likely to increase rather than lessen the financial difficulties of the hospitals. Some three years ago the British Medical Association laid down the principle, which has been, and is, very widely accepted by the staffs of hospitals, that though the staffs should be prepared to do gratuitous work for people who are objects of charity, they should not be expected to regard patients who are paid for by the Government or municipal bodies as suitable objects of their charity. Moreover, the British Medical Association foresees the time when, owing to these Government and municipal grants and the growth of the massed contributions from bodies of workmen, a very large proportion of the patients in the hospitals will be paid for in whole or in part. The staffs have therefore been advised to stake out their claim for payment in readiness for the time when the honorary principle will have become obsolete. The staffs who agree with this policy are therefore demanding that a varying percentage of the amounts paid by or on behalf of patients in hospitals shall be placed in a staff fund to be used entirely at the discretion of the medical staff. THE IDEAL SCHEME As already stated, Labour visualises a completely organised hospital service, with receiving stations, cottage hospitals, county hospitals, and national hospitals, ramifying throughout the length and breadth of the country, all working together for the speedy cure of individual sufferers and for raising the standard of the health of the whole nation. Each 12
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