Report of Sub-Committee on Out-Patients.

  • Westminster Hospital. Sub-Committee on Out-Patients.
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of Sub-Committee on Out-Patients. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    6/12 (page 6)
    Upon, reference to tlie original Minutes of the Founders of the Westminster Hospital, Mr. Hoare and others, your Com¬ mittee find that in 1719 the object of the Charity was to afford “ Medical and Surgical Relief to poor side and mfirm persons in¬ habiting the City of Westminster and elsewhere; ” and these terms are recited in the Act of Incorporation, 6 Gulielmi IV, cap. xx (19th May, 183B). In the first Report published after the es¬ tablishment of the “ Infirmary,” as it was then styled, this charitable object was still further defined and enlarged in the following terms ;—“ Whereas a charitable proposal was published in December last for relieving the sick and needy, by providing them with Lodging with proper Food and Physic, and Nurses to attend them during their sickness, and by procuring them the advice and assistance of Physicians or Surgeons as their necessi¬ ties should require.” The “poor sick,” and the “sick and needy,” are always referred to as the objects of the Charity, whether as In-Patients or Out-Patients. It seems only necessary to remark with reference to these extracts that they show the original intention of the founders of the Hospital was to limit its benefits to those who were poor, in the sense of being needy and unable otherwise to obtain the medical care and assistance they required. At this early date a large number of the poor, who are now otherwise provided for, were in a great degree dependent upon such Medical treatment as they could obtain at Public Hospitals. The tendency of all modern Poor Law legislation has been by making more ample provision for the poor sick and infirm, to further limit the proper objects of the charity, within the meaning and intent of the founders of this and other Hospitals, to the poor not ade¬ quately provided for by the Poor Law. The Hospital being in effect established for the relief of the sick poor, it follows that only those unable to pay for the medical advice their cases require, excepting always accidents and sudden emergencies, can be considered as legitimately coming within the range of the charity. 2. The nature and extent of any existing abuses in the Out- Patient Department. The evidence furnished by the Assistant Physicians and Surgeons and others on this head, in the opinion of the Sub- Committee, fully established the following facts and general conclusions. 1. Abuses no doubt exist from attendance of persons able to pay; but in the opinion of the Assistant Physicians,—who however consider it no part of their business to scrutinise the worldly condition of applicants,—the extent of this abuse has been over¬ estimated. 2. The numbers and overcrowding of the accommodation, beyond the power of the establishment to do justice to the patients, or themselves, has not been exaggerated;