Page:Introductory Address on the General Medical Council, its Powers and its Work.djvu/19

 conduct" in the technical sense. As the standard of professional competency becomes higher, as the conscience of men of good repute becomes ethically more exacting, so the area within which the Council can exercise its discipline expands. And thus it has come to pass that practices which, forty or fifty years ago, were so common and so lightly regarded that they excited little notice and less reprehension, are now repugnant to the general sense of the profession, and are sternly repressed by the Council. I may take two instances to illustrate my point.

Formerly, in certain parts of the country, it was customary for a qualified man in large general practice to employ a number of unqualified persons as his assistants. These, as they acquired a certain amount of rule-of-thumb experience, were gradually entrusted more and more with the sole care of patients. The practitioner sometimes did not see the patient until it was time to sign a death certificate in order to avert an inquest. Individual cases of gross abuse were one by one brought before the Council and condemned. Others, in which various forms of evasion were attempted, followed upon these; and as they arose these ingenuities were severally met and dealt with. At length it was made clear to those who clung to the evil tradition, that their practice was too dangerous to be profitable, and that the "unqualified assistant" must go. Having accumulated a sufficient body of experience regarding the mischief which had to be eradicated, the Council summed up all in a "warning notice" respecting the professional offence of "covering." All qualified practitioners were notified that the abuse of their qualifications, whereby an unqualified person was enabled to treat patients as if he were qualified, under "cover" of his employer, was in its nature fraudulent and dangerous to the public, and that such an offence rendered them liable to be judged guilty of infamous conduct. The result was remarkable. Unqualified assistants were dismissed wholesale, often no doubt at the cost of some hardship to individuals, but in the end for the good of the public and of