PRISONS

PRISONS

251 Permanent medical in all cases established posts within the meaning of the Asylums Officers’ Superannuation or unfurnished, fuel and light. appo...

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251 Permanent medical in all cases established posts within the meaning of the Asylums Officers’ Superannuation

or unfurnished, fuel and light.

appointments

are as

are

Various industrial hazards, such

occupational diseases such as the " beats " and pneumoconiosis, are continuously studied. The medical service is looking forward to the time when the whole of its energies can be concentrated on constructive work of this kind, and in the meantime will devote to it all the time that can be spared from dealing with the temporary problems and difficulties arising out of the war.

Act, 1909. Posts at these hospitals offer medical officers scope for initiative and promotion. Very few new appointments have been made during the war, and medical staffs have been much curtailed. There should be good openings in these immediate post-war years. The mental health services of the LCC are responsible for a large medical service, vacancies in which are nQrmally advertised at short intervals. No new permanent appointments are being made at present ; indeed the staffs of the various hospitals have been reduced as a war measure. An applicant enters the service as assistant medical officer at a salary of £470 a year, rising by annual increments of j625 to fit570. Salaries are graded through the various ranks to fi1450 paid to superintendents of large hospitals ; a superintendent is also provided with an unfurnished house on the hospital premises. Assistant medical officers may be required to live in the institution which they are serving and to pay fixed rates for board, lodging, and washing. Officers contribute to a superannuation fund. They are required to take a diploma in psychological medicine within three years of entering the service and the diploma carries with it a payment, in addition to salary, of 250 a year. Promotion is reasonably rapid for men. The mental health services are actively concerned in the EMS. Three hospitals are used entirely as emergency hospitals and at three others there is an emergency hospital section. Treatment is provided for all types of acute, medical, and surgical cases, and the hospitals are staffed and equipped to give specialised treatment. The medical staff for these hospitals is drawn mainly from the emergency medical service.

PRISONS AT the larger prisons whole-time officers are appointed, sometimes with deputy medical officers to assist them. Unfurnished quarters are provided or an allowance made in aid of rent. Posts are pensionable and promotions are made as vacancies occur. Candidates with a diploma in psychological medicine receive £50 per annum more on appointment than candidates without this qualification, and are given preference provided they also have good all-round general experience. At the smaller prisons no whole-time officers are employed ; local practitioners are usually appointed as part-time officers. Further particulars can be obtained from the Prison Commissioners, Kensington Mansions, Trebovir

Road, London, SW5.



Services Abroad

INDIAN MEDICAL SERVICE > RECRUITMENT to the Indian Medical Service, which is to meet the needs of the designed primarily Indian Army, was modified by the war, and officers have been appointed to emergency commissions in the military branch for the duration of the war, in the East. The method of recruitment of men medical officers, other than those of Indian or Dominions origin, has been altered and those wishing to be appointed are required to join the Royal Army MINES MEDICAL SERVICE Medical Corps first. After a course of instruction they THE Mines Medical Service now consists of eight can apply to be posted to the Indian establishment, and regional mines medical officers, with a chief mines are then given an opportunity to transfer to the Indian medical officer and a deputy at headquarters. Medical Service. Officers selected for transfer will be The white-paper on coal proposed the establishment given preference when applying for permanent commisof this service " with a view particularly to checking sions in the Indian Medical Service, if these are granted wastage of labour." Thus much of the work of the again now the war is over. The upper age-limit for medical staff is concerned with applications -for release European emergency commissioned officers on appointfrpm the industry on medical grounds. Before the ment is at present 45. medical service was founded all such applicants were Officers on appointment to the IMS are eligible for the sent by the Ministry of Labour for independent medical grant of antedates, which are reckoned in assessing examination. The functions of the service have been service for seniority and promotion, in respect of specitwofold: to relieve the workman of such examination, fied higher medical qualifications (six months or a year) or approved whole-time hospital appointments (maxiif the medical evidence put forward by him was sufficiently conclusive ; and in doubtful cases where inde- mum a year). The antedating in these cases is limited pendent medical examination is necessary, to secure a to a total period of 1 t years. Antedating equivalent to high standard of examination. These services have half the period spent in practice, less the period granted been of value both to the workmen individually and in in respect of hospital appointments, is also allowed up to helping to check unwarranted wastage of labour. But a maximum of 5 years. All previous full-pay commissioned service with the Armed Forces as a medical officer it has always been realised that these activities, essential also counts towards rank and seniority on transfer. as they are at present, are not constructive, except in that they lead to better medical or surgical treatment Qualified officers selected for specialist posts are of the patients concerned. From the start the medical granted appropriate temporary rank with the pay and allowances of the appointment. Passages to India are officers have been enjoined to devote all the time possible to professional activities at the mines and in not granted to wives and families ; but if, at the end of , his service, an emergency commissioned officer elects to connexion with the hospitals, rehabilitation centres, and other institutions to which the miners go for treatment. reside in India, he can be allowed the cost of transport of Professional work at the mines themselves is increasing himself and his family to the place where he wishes to live. in volume. Medical officers have charge of the first-aid The pay of a European lieutenant in India is £585 and ambulance arrangements both below and above yearly, and of a captain on promotion £750; on his ground ; they study the working conditions in relation release an emergency commissioned officer receives a to the miners’ health, and are getting a wide first-hand minimum gratuity of Rs. 2000 if his date of registration experience of the coal-mining community at work. as a doctor was before Jan. 1, 1940, or Rs. 1000 if Special attention is being given, and will be given registered on or after that date, provided he completes a increasingly, to a practical study of the causes of the year of service ; he gets an addition of a month’s pay for so-called industrial diseases, and to measures for preeach further year of Army service. If invalided out for venting or alleviating them. The field to be covered is a disability due to service he receives disability retiredwide, and previous work and experience have already pay appropriate to his rank and degree of disablement, shown that there are no easy roads to speedy improvewhich for Europeans is as for officers of the RAMC. If ment ; but it is hoped to improve conditions gradually he dies as a result of military service during the war, by concentrating on particular difficulties and problems. provision is made for his widow and children. Several studies of this kind are already in hand. The Women medical officers are appointed direct for service use of morphine for the first-aid treatment of cases of with the Indian Medical Service by the Secretary of painful injury underground has proved beneficial. A State for India under conditions similar to the above, large number of cases have been treated with good and a number have already been appointed from the results, the drug easing the patient and lessening the shock. United Kingdom. Full information regarding these The conditions governing the use of the drug at mines appointments and those available for Indian medical -

,

strictly enforced.

dermatitis, epidermophytosis, Weil’s disease, and