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Act, 1855, &c.) for the reception and maintenance in the hospitals of
the Managers of any person suffering from any dangerous infectious
disorder within the district of any such Vestry, &c.; and any person
received into an hospital by virtue of any such contract, will be deemed
to be maintained in such hospital by the Vestry, &c., with whom the
contract is made. It is further enacted that expenses incurred by the
local authority (i.e , Vestry, &c.) for the maintenance of any person
under this section shall be deemed to be due from such person to the
local authority, and may be recovered, by the local authority from him,
or his representatives, at any time within six months after his discharge
from such hospital.
Refering to this section, I remarked that the powers thus given to
the sanitary authority to contract for the maintenance in hospitals of
non-paupers, is a round-about way of depauperising the relief afforded
to such persons in the hospitals belonging to the Managers, which are
essentially pauper establishments. The power given to the sanitary
authority to recover from the sick person, or his representatives, the
expenses incident to his treatment in the hospital may possibly be
found useful in occasional instances; but, put plainly, it amounts to
this—that the sanitary authority, having for the protection of the
public health, succeeded in getting a person to consent to be isolated
in a pauper establishment, side by side with paupers, may upon his
discharge therefrom, or on his death occurring, proceed to recover from
him, or his representatives, the costs incurred by them— on his account
doubtless, but for the protection of the public rather than for the
safety of the patient himself. If this power should be at all generally
exercised by the Vestries, &c., it would more than neutralise any
benefit likely to accrue from the discretion they now have to contract
with the Managers for the reception and maintenance of non-paupers.
It is,''therefore, to be hoped that in any district where such power may be
exercised very great care will be taken, so that payment may be
exacted of those only who are well able to pay, and who may have
sought the assistance of the Vestry, &c. There is, really no reason
however, why any person so situated should seek the assistance of the
sanitary authority at all, for it is quite certain that the expenses incurred
at any one of the hospitals belonging to the Managers in the treatment
of a case of fever or small-pox, would, (unless the patient died
very speedily after admittance), usually exceed the charge made