HC Deb 09 May 1854 vol 133 cc89-90
MR. PIGOTT

said, he would now beg to move for a Select Committee, To inquire into the mode in which Medical Relief is now administered in the different Unions in England and Wales, and to ascertain whether any additional facilities might be afforded to the Poor in obtaining Medical Relief. He considered that the importance of this question could hardly be over-estimated, when it was remembered that it involved an annual expenditure of 4,000,000l.; nor could it be contested that the present system under which medical relief was administered was exceedingly defective, since that had been admitted by the late Mr. Charles Buller, when President of the Poor Law Board in 1848. Looking at the question as it regarded the poor, it could be shown that the provision by which no person not receiving relief from the rates could receive medical relief had produced 70 per cent of the present pauperism; while, as regarded the medical officers, it was clear that their salaries were wholly inadequate; in fact, it could not remunerate them for the cost of the drugs they were obliged to dispense if they conscientiously performed their duties. It was not, therefore, surprising that the system worked in a very unsatisfactory manner, and he could prove that in many cases poor persons had died from want of medical relief. That relief might be much more satisfactorily given, and at a reduced cost, by remodelling the system under which it was administered; and under these circumstances he hoped the Government would not oppose the appointment of a Select Committee.

LORD JOHN RUSSELL

said, that there could be no doubt that this was a very important subject, because the medical relief given to the poor formed a chief part of the poor relief of the country; and he should therefore be very sorry to interpose any obstacle to the appointment of a Select Committee, before which valuable evidence might be given. At the same time he could not encourage the expectation that any very great benefit would be derived from separating the medical from the general poor law relief. His hon. and learned Friend had said that 70 per cent of the relief given was distributed under the head of medical relief, and that the persons so receiving it were thereby made paupers, as if the whole distinction consisted in their bearing the name of paupers. Now it was evident that what really distinguished them from others was the fact of their receiving public relief paid out of the rates; and it would not make any very great distinction whether that relief was given to him with or without the name of "pauper." The evil consequences of receiving relief would equally follow in both cases. At the same time there was no doubt that improvements might be introduced into our present system of administering medical relief, and he should therefore assent to the appointment of the Committee.

Motion agreed to.