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to recover from the Guardians such fee as may be prescribed, and the
Guardians may, if they think fit, recover the amount as a civil debt from
the patient or the person liable to provide the patient with medical aid.
It is provided such assistance shall not be considered as parochial relief.
The Committee were of opinion, however, it is undesirable that medical
assistance rendered in such circumstances should be associated in any
way with the administration of the Poor Law, but that the London
County Council should be the authority in London responsible for the
payment of the fees of medical practitioners in such cases. The Committee
recommended that the Council concur in this opinion, and that
the Lord President of the Council be urged to amend the Bill to this
extent.
The following letter was submitted to the Public Health and Housing
Committee, viz.:—
Poplar Board of Guardians,
Upper North Street,
Poplar, E.
3rd November, 1910.
Dear Sir,
Midwives' Act, 1902.
In March, 1906, the London County Council called the attention
of Boards of Guardians in the Metropolis to the rules made by
the Central Midwives Board under the above Act, one of which
rules prohibits a midwife from attending alone upon certain cases
of difficulty, and places on her the duty of advising that the services
of a medical practitioner be obtained, but no provision is made
either in the Act or rules made thereunder for the payment of fees
of medical practitioners who may be summoned in such cases, and
in which the patients are too poor to pay.
Upon consideration of the representations made to them on
the subject, the Guardians agreed (in cases in which the patient
was not in receipt of poor law relief) to pay the fee of any medical
practitioner called in by a midwife under the rule of the Central
Midwives Board, where the person was obviously too poor to pay.
The amount of the fees paid by the Guardians during the past
twelve months under the above-named arrangement, in non-pauper
cases, was £24 11s. 6d.; but the Guardians are strongly of opinion
that, as such cases do not otherwise come in contact with the Poor
Law, it is undesirable that they should be dealt with by the Poor