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The prevention of venereal disease
50
PUBLIC HEALTH.
congratulations of the Society for their boldness in suggesting that a learned and scientific society should take cognisance of such mundane matters as salaries, and should act on behalf of its members in the " collective bargaining " that has now become so established a part of our twentieth-century existence. The foregoing resolutions represent an excellent beginning. We understand that the instructions contained therein have not been carried out in their entirety, b u t the results have been, nevertheless, highly satisfactory. The resolutions have been forwarded to the Government Departments concerned, and to the British Medical Association, which, in its turn, has adopted and endorsed them and has forwarded them to the Local Authorities. County and County Borough Councils, Urban and Rural District Councils, and Boards of Guardians have had brought to their notice the fact that public medical officers are as a class grossly underpaid, and the still more important fact that they have a Society which is prepared to p u t forward, and if necessary to press and to organize their claims for a scale of remuneration which can compare favourably with those monetary rewards obtainable b y men who are successfully practising medicine or surgery either as general practitioners or consultants. I t is in the public interest that the rewards for the public medical service should be so attractive that the best men would regard it a s their natural and obvious sphere. Many local authorities have given favourable consideration to the letter from the British Medical Association, and have increased the salaries of their medical officers. Some have refused, and a few have declined to consider the subject because no application had been received from the medical officer--a fact which must be duly noted for future guidance. At all events, for a first effort the results are good, and we hope that it represents the beginning of a series of organised representations on this subject. We trust, however, that in future t h e Society, while welcoming all the support that the British Medical Association is inclined to give, will carry on its crusades fearlessly and independently and in its own name. The present results would, we are convinced, have been more successful if independent representations from t h e Society and also the B.M.A. had been received b y every local authority.
FEBRUARY,
The general practice of medicine has never been more remunerative than at the present time. The passing of the National Insurance Act raised the amount of income of general practitioners, and the effect of such general increase upon the number and quality of applicants for junior positions in Public Health service has become very marked. F a r more numerous candidates formerly resulted from advertisements for junior positions at £250 per annum than are secured b y advertisements during the last two years offering a salary of £400 per annum. This alteration is not entirely due t o W a r conditions. I t is now beginning to be understood that a Medical Officer of Health is in the first place a flfily-qualified medical practitioner, and that he has had to undergo a long and expensive preparation for five or six years prior to obtaining a qualification to practice. At this stage most medical men enter practice and begin to earn an income, but the medical officer of health has to continue his expenditure of time and money b y post graduate study in order to obtain his diploma in Public Health, and to gain special experience in infectious diseases, bacteriology, maternity and child welfare work, tuberculosis and venereal diseases, so that the average age of commencement of a public health career is much higher than that for general practice. The medical officer of h e a l t h is, in fact, a specialist and he m u s t be paid as such.,
T I ~ PREVENTION OF VENEREAL DISEASE. This subject is now receiving a considerable amount of public attention, and our readers may be interested in references to the subject which have been made in the Medical World, November 23rd, Nature, December i2th, and The Times of January 4th, and subsequent dates, part of which is published in this issue together with a most valuable contribution to the scientific evidence on the subject by Sir Archdall Reid and Commander Boyden. On January 4th The Times published a leader advocating prophylaxis and an editorial note concluding the correspondence on January Ioth, says: " T h e object of The Times in publishing correspondence and a leading article on this subject was to break in the public interest a mischievous tradition of silence, and to throw whatever weight may attach to our opinion on to the side of attempts to eradicate the great national danger."
PUBLIC HEALTH.
congratulations of the Society for their boldness in suggesting that a learned and scientific society should take cognisance of such mundane matters as salaries, and should act on behalf of its members in the " collective bargaining " that has now become so established a part of our twentieth-century existence. The foregoing resolutions represent an excellent beginning. We understand that the instructions contained therein have not been carried out in their entirety, b u t the results have been, nevertheless, highly satisfactory. The resolutions have been forwarded to the Government Departments concerned, and to the British Medical Association, which, in its turn, has adopted and endorsed them and has forwarded them to the Local Authorities. County and County Borough Councils, Urban and Rural District Councils, and Boards of Guardians have had brought to their notice the fact that public medical officers are as a class grossly underpaid, and the still more important fact that they have a Society which is prepared to p u t forward, and if necessary to press and to organize their claims for a scale of remuneration which can compare favourably with those monetary rewards obtainable b y men who are successfully practising medicine or surgery either as general practitioners or consultants. I t is in the public interest that the rewards for the public medical service should be so attractive that the best men would regard it a s their natural and obvious sphere. Many local authorities have given favourable consideration to the letter from the British Medical Association, and have increased the salaries of their medical officers. Some have refused, and a few have declined to consider the subject because no application had been received from the medical officer--a fact which must be duly noted for future guidance. At all events, for a first effort the results are good, and we hope that it represents the beginning of a series of organised representations on this subject. We trust, however, that in future t h e Society, while welcoming all the support that the British Medical Association is inclined to give, will carry on its crusades fearlessly and independently and in its own name. The present results would, we are convinced, have been more successful if independent representations from t h e Society and also the B.M.A. had been received b y every local authority.
FEBRUARY,
The general practice of medicine has never been more remunerative than at the present time. The passing of the National Insurance Act raised the amount of income of general practitioners, and the effect of such general increase upon the number and quality of applicants for junior positions in Public Health service has become very marked. F a r more numerous candidates formerly resulted from advertisements for junior positions at £250 per annum than are secured b y advertisements during the last two years offering a salary of £400 per annum. This alteration is not entirely due t o W a r conditions. I t is now beginning to be understood that a Medical Officer of Health is in the first place a flfily-qualified medical practitioner, and that he has had to undergo a long and expensive preparation for five or six years prior to obtaining a qualification to practice. At this stage most medical men enter practice and begin to earn an income, but the medical officer of health has to continue his expenditure of time and money b y post graduate study in order to obtain his diploma in Public Health, and to gain special experience in infectious diseases, bacteriology, maternity and child welfare work, tuberculosis and venereal diseases, so that the average age of commencement of a public health career is much higher than that for general practice. The medical officer of h e a l t h is, in fact, a specialist and he m u s t be paid as such.,
T I ~ PREVENTION OF VENEREAL DISEASE. This subject is now receiving a considerable amount of public attention, and our readers may be interested in references to the subject which have been made in the Medical World, November 23rd, Nature, December i2th, and The Times of January 4th, and subsequent dates, part of which is published in this issue together with a most valuable contribution to the scientific evidence on the subject by Sir Archdall Reid and Commander Boyden. On January 4th The Times published a leader advocating prophylaxis and an editorial note concluding the correspondence on January Ioth, says: " T h e object of The Times in publishing correspondence and a leading article on this subject was to break in the public interest a mischievous tradition of silence, and to throw whatever weight may attach to our opinion on to the side of attempts to eradicate the great national danger."