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assistance should not entail on the recipients the loss of any social or
political status; and that the cost of hospital treatment of such infective
sick persons should be made a charge on the Metropolitan Common
Poor Fund.
4. That the President of the Local Government Board be asked to receive a
Deputation to present the foregoing resolutions, and make request that
he would be pleased to bring under the notice of the Government the
desirability of taking measures for giving effect to them by legislation.
5. That copies of the foregoing resolutions be forwarded to the several Vestries
and District Boards of Works; the Commissioners of Sewers for the
City of London; the Council of the British Medical Association; the
Council of the Society of Medical Officers of Health; the Council of
the Social Science Association; the Managers of the Metropolitan
Asylum District; and the Boards of Guardians in the Metropolis; that
each of the several Vestries and District Boards of Works, should they
approve the resolutions, be requested to appoint two gentlemen to take
part in the deputation to the President of the Local Government Board,
and that the other bodies above referred to, be invited to co-operate with
the deputation in order to secure the objects embraced in the resolution."
With reference to the subject of the third resolution, objection
had been made in some quarters to the acceptance of the principle
of free hospital treatment which your Vestry had adopted, on the
ground that many persons sent to the hospitals of the Managers of
the Asylum District contributed sums considerable in the aggregate
towards their maintenance, &c. To settle this question, I made
enquiry of the Clerks of the Boards of Guardians, some 30 in
number, "What number of persons had been removed to the
hospitals from the 25th March, 1880, to date? What number of
such persons had contributed to their maintenance in hospital ? and
What was the gross amount of such contributions?" I received
replies from 20 unions and parishes, showing that 3,100 cases had
been removed within the period specified, and that the sums contributed
by 79 patients amounted to only £58 10s. 1d., thus entirely
confirming the view I had expressed, that "repayment of expenses
is rarely, if ever, exacted," and, as I think, justifying the desire of
the Conference in passing the resolution to see the sanction of law
accorded to what has now grown into a well-established, and, as I
believe, judicious practice. Comparatively few cases are removed
by the Nuisance Authorities, who, moreover, have no power to recover
the costs incurred in the maintenance, etc., of the sick, except
in special circumstances under the provisions of Sec. 15 of the
Poor Law Amendment Act, 1879,—this section, however, being
practically a dead letter.
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