Medical officer of health

“ There is in the city one principal sanitary officer, a duly qualified medical man elected by the Municipal Council, whose sole duty it is to watch over the sanitary welfare of the place. Under him, as sanitary officers, are all the medical men who form the poor law medical staff. ”

“ We want independent Medical Officers of Health—appointed by the County Council, and removable only by them—men trained up for this as a profession; we want Sanitary Inspectors, with a proper qualification, appointed with the Medical Officer's approval; we want that each Medical Officer should be informed as to all approaches of dangerous disease, and bound in his turn to supply the information for other neighbouring districts ”

“ New Code of Regulations for Sanitary Service of Army, 1857-9 The second sub-commission was appointed for re-organizing the New Code of army medical department, and for framing a code of regulations for Regulations the hospital and sanitary service of the army. This commission found that, according to existing practice, no provision was made for systematically caring for the soldier's health, but only for his sickness. The chief recognised function of the army medical officer was attending men in hospital ”

“ The British army is plentifully supplied with these medical officers. For the army of 118,000 men there were provided one thousand and seventy-five medical officers under full pay in 1859. Four hundred and seventy surgeons and assistant-surgeons were attached to the hundred regiments of infantry. [80]
It is made the duty of the medical officer to keep constant watch over all the means and habits of life among the troops,—"to see that all regulations for protecting the health of troops, in barracks, garrisons, stations, or camps, are duly observed." ”

“ It is difficult to draw distinctions between the various classes of personnel, but it may perhaps be said in general terms, at the present time, that the most difficult qualified personnel to secure is the medical officer. The Public Health Service was peculiarly fortunate in assembling a large Reserve Corps. At the close of the war, many medical men who had been in the military forces were demobilized. Finding themselves somewhat adrift, and having broken completely old associations, they were inclined, if opportunity offered, to continue in the Government service. ”

“ If a health officer has reason to suspect that a person is a contact or is infected with a specified infectious disease or is contaminated, the health officer may subject the person to medical surveillance or a medical examination or a test, which must not be more intrusive or invasive than is necessary for ascertaining the person’s health condition. ”

“ Is it not obvious that there should be a staff of medical officers and orderlies, detached altogether from any association with the treatment of disease, who should devote themselves entirely to the problem of prevention? ”

“ General practitioners shall mainly provide such services as diagnosis, treatment, referral, prevention, healthcare and rehabilitation of common diseases and frequently-occurring diseases, chronic diseases management, and health management. ”

“ The health department of a modern city is charged with a double duty: it has to care for cases of disease, and it has to suggest and enforce laws to keep the city sanitary. The former task—the treatment of sickness—is much more widely recognized as the proper function of the medical profession ”

“ Statesmanship as well as professional ability is expected of physicians in the leading European cities, more particularly of those connected with health departments. There it is not felt that a medical degree is of itself a qualification for sanitary or health work. After the professional course, physicians must take courses in preventive hygiene and in health administration. Medical courses include such subjects as vital statistics, duties of medical officers of health, sanitary legislation, state medicine. ”

“ We will respond to public health accidents promptly, publicly, and effectively. We will work to ensure that medical practitioners remain motivated and that interactions between doctor and patient are amicable. ”

“ Whether or not a physician is the official health protector of the community, a physician there should be who can be reached readily by those who need him, and who should be required to produce a certificate of thorough training in both medicine and surgery. If such a medical practitioner does not establish himself in the district voluntarily, the community might well afford to employ such a physician on a salary and make him responsible for the health of all. ”

“ Another of the duties of the Department of Health was to examine every person that applied to practice medicine and surgery or to engage in any professional calling. The law required a medical examination to be made of the person, who was granted a license every year, so as to keep the professions up to a high standard. ”

“ Between the years 1922 and 1932 we may expect to have established a National Board of Health, with a chief officer in the cabinet and an organization similar to that of the Army, in which every physician and every pharmacist will be an officer of the United States Government. Those physicians, under the new order, who remain in the office awaiting the call of the sick will be comparatively few in number. ”

“ Few professions require more careful preparation by one who seeks to enter it than that of medicine. It has to deal with all those subtle and mysterious influences upon which health and life depend, and requires not only a knowledge of the properties of vegetable and mineral substances, but of the human body in all its complicated parts, and their relation to each other, as well as their influence upon the mind. The physician must be able to detect readily the presence of disease, and prescribe appropriate remedies for its removal. ”

“ Qualification.—No person can lawfully practise medicine in any department unless he be a graduate of a medical college, or unless upon examination before a board composed of the [194] superintendent of public health and two other physicians to be selected by the territorial board of health, he be found proficient in the practice of medicine and surgery, and shall be found upon proof to have been actually engaged in the practice of medicine not less than five years. No person shall practise medicine unless he be of good moral character, and is not an habitual drunkard. ”

“ But of the prophylaxis of disease they have little trained knowledge, and they are not seriously interested. The prophylaxis of disease really implies organised and co-operative effort, and can only be effectively undertaken by those public-health officials who are charged with it as a definite function. In Australia at all events the inducements to enter the public-health service as a profession are not very great. The influence of the department is not very far-reaching, and the prophylaxis of disease is still in its infancy. ”

“ Such knowledge of medicine and surgery as is possessed by the medical profession generally will not alone suffice to make an efficient military surgeon. He must have, in addition, knowledge of the administration and sanitation of large field hospitals and camps, in order to safeguard the health and lives of men intrusted in great numbers to his care. A bill has long been pending before the Congress for the reorganization of the Medical Corps ”

“ Section 1102 Definitions As used in this part:
(1) "Emergency health services" means medical and dental care for the civilian population in all of their specialties and adjunct therapeutic fields, and the planning, provision, and operation of first aid stations, hospitals, and clinics; preventive health services, including detection, identification and control of communicable diseases, their vectors, and other public health hazards, inspection and control of purity and safety of food, drugs, and biologicals; vital statistics services ”

“ The governors of the hospital never had a medical officer more desirous of efficiently performing his duties; and he shewed the interest he took in the advancement of the pupils, by immediately instituting clinical lectures; thus adding to his own labours, at a period when his time was daily becoming more valuable to him. His patience in investigating a disease was only exceeded by his perspicacity in detecting it, and his anxiety to cure it. ”

“ For its sins of omission, as for its sins of commission, the medical profession shares responsibility with laymen. For years leading educators, business men, hospital directors, public officials, have known that communicable diseases could be stamped out. ”

“ That for the prevention of the disease occasioned by defective ventilation, and other causes of impurity in places of work and other places where large numbers are assembled, and for the general promotion of the means necessary to prevent disease, that it would be good economy to appoint a district medical officer independent of private practice, and with the securities of special qualifications and responsibilities to initiate sanitary measures and reclaim the execution of the law. ”

“ Nothing in the above act shall prevent any person, not a British subject, who shall have obtained from any foreign university a degree or diploma of doctor in medicine, and who shall have passed the regular examinations entitling him to practise medicine in his own country, from being and acting as the resident physician or medical officer of any hospital established exclusively for the relief of foreigners in sickness ”

“ Persons not graduates in medicine who had practised medicine in this State under a certificate issued by the State board of health prior to the passage of the act are authorized to practise medicine in all its departments. ”

“ If certain hygienic agencies are essential to the maintenance of health, how much more necessary it is that they be employed in sickness! If certain conditions cause disease, how great the necessity is that such conditions be obviated and hygienic ones substituted! ”

“ Article 36
⁠Medical and healthcare institutions of all types and at all levels shall divide responsibilities and cooperate with each other to provide citizens with such all-round and full-life-cycle medical and healthcare services as disease prevention, healthcare, treatment, nursing, rehabilitation, and palliative care. ”

“ The medical system of the future must be a national system co-ordinating all the conditions of health. At the centre we should expect to find a Minister of Health, and every doctor of the State would give his whole time to his work and be paid by salary which in the case of the higher posts would be equal to that now fixed for the higher legal offices, for the chief doctor in the State ought to be at least as important an official as the Lord Chancellor. ”

“ Article 95
⁠Health departments of people's governments at the county level and above shall actively cultivate medical and healthcare industry associations, maximize their role in medical, healthcare and health promotion work, support their participation in the development of industry management practices and technical standards, and in medical and healthcare evaluation, assessment and review work. ”

“ If an assistant-surgeon, he must be prepared to practice his profession in the most comprehensive sense of the word: no distinction is made between medicine and surgery. Every medical officer must act in either capacity, as circumstances demand, (which is more reasonable after all than drawing a line between two branches which cannot be separated) ,and perform the duty of aurist, oculist, accoucheur, chemist, and medical jurist, as occasion presents itself. ”

“ It continues the old popular conception of private medical practice, and allows the public to remain obsessed with the notion that satisfactory medical care consists in a “visit and a bottle.” No provision is made for pathological aids to diagnosis, beyond what is already provided by public health authorities. No nurses are available for serious cases; the insured person is not entitled to surgical operations, when needed, except of the simplest character. ”

“ The services of the relieving officer are highly important, as he has an opportunity of observing the state of filth and the obvious predisposition, and perhaps of causes of disease, preventing it before the visits of the medical officer, who is of course only called upon to attend when disease has arisen. The relieving officers visit more frequently than the medical officer, and give the tickets or orders requiring his attendance. ”

“ Article 16
⁠The state adopts measures to ensure citizens' access to safe and effective basic public health services, controls health risk factors, and improves the level of disease prevention and control.
⁠National basic public health service programs shall be determined by the health department under the State Council in conjunction with the department of finance and the department of traditional Chinese medicine under the State Council. ”

“ If the patient continues recalcitrant and refuses to allow himself to be examined by the medical practitioner appointed by the Director-General of Health, then the latter should be empowered to apply to a Magistrate for the arrest of such person and his detention in a public hospital or other place of treatment until he is non-infective. ”

“ Nursing assistants, volunteers, etc., should be used wherever possible in homes and institutions, under expert supervision, after classification and assignment on a basis of minimum standards as to fitness, and such intensive training in the care of influenza and pneumonia patients as may be feasible.
3. From the standpoint of the patient, home treatment is to be advocated, if medical, nursing, disease preventive and other facilities are adequate. ”