Medical officer

“ 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. ”

“ The army medical officer found new problems facing him at every fresh development of the conflict, and to fit him for grappling with these new phases of human needs the Medical Department of the Army established numberless schools and courses of study at medical institutions, at hospitals and wherever could be brought together the factors necessary for this specialized and intensive training. ”

“ 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. ”

“ I have already pointed out the difference between the province of the purveyor and the surgeon; and it is remarkable, that it is precisely at the point where the general and regimental hospitals meet, that the duties of a purveyor become paramount and indispensable, while the duties of a medical officer are in no degree changed, except in so far as he has to treat a disease which, having been acute in a regimental hospital, may probably have become chronic in a general one—a change for which surely every medical man is prepared. ”

“ Two physicians are attached to the institution under whose care the patients are placed alternately in the order in which they are admitted: there is one assistant physician whose duty it is to perform the office of the ordinary physicians when either of these may be incapable of attending, and there is besides a medical officer resident in the house. ”

“ Among the most successful and valuable of the films produced by the forces of the Instruction Laboratory at the camps, and with the aid of the Medical Department, was "Training the Medical Officer," directed at the thousands of new medical officers taken from civilian life and passing through the medical officers training courses. ”

“ IMPORTANCE OF MEDICAL OFFICERS.—To a right thinking man, few positions in life are more serious or more responsible than that of a medical officer in charge of an out station, with the lives of two or three thousand individuals entrusted to his care, where he may, at any moment, be called to attend cases of imminent danger without time for deliberation, with no other to consult or assist him with advice, or aid him in an operation. ”

“ The Registrar, as the principal executive officer of the hospital, whose business it is to carry out the decisions of the Commanding Officer, is at present invariably a medical officer. The greater part of his work does not need medical knowledge, and the difficulty might be obviated by the adoption of one of two methods. Either the Registrar might be an educated business man or he might have such a one as his immediate understudy. ”

“ Fortunately we have not to begin absolutely from the beginning: we already have, in the Medical Officer of Health, a sort of doctor who is free from the worst hardships, and consequently from the worst vices, of the private practitioner. His position depends, not on the number of people who are ill, and whom he can keep ill, but on the number of people who are well. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is expressly understood that all the work in Occupational Therapy should be upon prescription of the Medical Officer in Charge of the Hospital or his designated agent, and a proper cooperation between the Medical staff and the staff of the Reconstruction Section will insure most satisfactory results, and that this cooperation of the work will be very necessary in order to secure proper efficiency. ”

“ 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 ”

“ He will be examined by a medical officer, who will ascertain whether he is free from all bodily and organic defects, and whether, as far as regards physical constitution, he is in every point of view fit for military service. ”

“ To go, therefore, to the station, make a cursory examination, and then write a certificate that the person is seriously ill and must be removed without delay, or in the case of a simply cut head send it at once away to the infirmary for the workhouse surgeon to get out of bed and dress it, is, in my judgment, an entirely unsatisfactory procedure, especially as the latter is paid no special fee, be his trouble ever so great. There was nothing in all my duty as a workhouse medical officer, which irritated me more than these police cases. ”

“ The teachers and workers in Pre-Vocational Training will operate directly under the Educational Director of the hospital, who in turn will be directly responsible to the Commanding Officer or Medical Officer in Charge of the Hospital. ”

“ Even though his patients are all male, and practically all of them young, every kind of case comes to the sick bay in the course of a single cruise. We have a saying in the Medical Corps: "In the Navy you may get anything from harelip to twins." Perhaps this isn't such an exaggeration now, since we have the Waves.
Aboard ship, the chief medical officer is much more than a ship's surgeon. He is depended upon for adequate treatment of the sick and wounded, and his advice and recommendations for promoting the health and well-being of the men are sought by the Line officers. ”

“ In other words, there should be for such an army at least 1,000 medical officers in the regular service, and also at least 3,000 volunteer surgeons, professionally and physically equipped for such work. ”

“ 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 ”

“ Every voluntary aid detachment will be so arranged as to admit of dividing into two complete half detachments, thus:
Men—Commandant, medical officer, quartermaster, pharmacist, assistant pharmacist, under officer and 12 men; assistant commandant, medical officer, quartermaster, pharmacist, assistant pharmacist, under officer and 12 men.
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Women—Commandant (medical officer) , quartermaster, lady superintendent, ten women (including one trained nurse) ; assistant commandant (medical officer) , assistant quartermaster, lady superintendent, ten women (including one trained nurse) . ”

“ 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? ”

“ Herbert also appointed a Committee to reorganize [396] the Army Hospital Corps (1860) . “In former times there were no proper attendants on the sick. For regimental hospitals a steady man was appointed hospital sergeant, and two or three soldiers, fit for nothing else, were sent into the hospital to be under the orders of the medical officer, who, if he were fortunate enough to find one man fit to nurse a patient, was sure to lose him by his being recalled ‘to duty’; sometimes, indeed, men were nominated in rotation over the sick in hospital as they would mount guard over a store. ”

“ Again difficulties arose, since none of the medical officers wanted the job. In fact, medical officers in general never want to do anything except attend to patients. They are unsuited temperamentally for administrative work, and dislike it. ”

“ In future, no surgeon, surgeon’s mate, or physician, not holding an appointment in the army of the United States, is to be employed on public account, by any officer or other person whatever to act in the capacity of surgeon or physician, for any man or men attached to the army, unless by special agreement first entered into, in which the compensation for medical service to be performed, shall be stipulated in writing, either by the day or month. ”

“ The most able of the guardians would confess that if they are not entirely incompetent to supervise medical service, they are at the best but imperfectly qualified for such a task, and the medical officers would act with more satisfaction to themselves from the supervision of officers from whom they might derive aid and confidence. ”

“ If you can once get your Medical Officers to depend on you for having everything they want at hand, and for making the patients happy and contented, and the orderlies in good order, they soon get to think they can't do without you. ”

“ It can no longer be regarded as derogatory to the medical profession to promote the careful treatment of men and women who are suffering from a disease so injurious, and in mentioning the step which his Excellency has taken, he desires me to indicate the extreme importance in the first instance of medical officers being prepared to study and practice this particular branch of their professional work, under the assurance that their doing so must certainly result in the recognition of their efforts. ”

“ When I look at these ranks, you Generaloberstabsarzt Handloser, are to be envied; medical experts, with the best and most highly trained special knowledge, are at your disposal for care of the soldiers. In reciprocal action between yourself and your medical officers, the problem of our medical knowledge and capacity are kept alive. ”

“ The number of surgeons required for the duty imposed by this section would be about 150 in addition to the local physicians. We have no medical officers to spare from attendance upon the troops and in hospitals, so that it would be necessary to appoint this number of new officers who would generally be drawn from men in active service in the field. After the first visit to the different counties these officers would have so little to do as to be practically supernumeraries supported by the Government at great cost, and with the loss of their services in the field. ”

“ Figure 4.—This group of U.S. Army medical officers includes several who were to be prominent in the history of the Army Medical Museum and the Library of The Surgeon General. Standing (left to right) : Lt. Col. William G. Spencer, Assistant Surgeon Alfred A. Woodhull, Surgeon General Joseph K. Barnes, Assistant Surgeon Edward Curtis. Seated (left to right) : Assistant Surgeons George A. Otis, Charles H. Crane, John S. Billings, and Joseph J. Woodward. ”

“ In my opinion the best interests of sick officers and soldiers require that the medical staff of the army should, in all its operations, act in the most complete harmony with the medical profession of the United States, and I can not do otherwise than express my belief that the discordance in practice, which would be imposed by such a statute as is suggested, would be fraught with the most unfortunate consequences. ”

“ Our Medical Corps is especially entitled to praise for the general effectiveness of its work both in hospital and at the front. Embracing men of high professional attainments, and splendid women devoted to their calling and untiring in their efforts, this department has made a new record for medical and sanitary proficiency. ”

“ From the days when the first duty of the so-called army surgeon was to minister to his commanding general, and when the private soldier received but the scantiest if any attention, we have arrived at that time when the good health of the entire army is the aim and pride of the medical corps, and when public opinion demands for every enlisted man a degree of watchful care greater than many parents bestow upon their own families. ”

“ The fifth section of the act provides for an infirmary corps of fifty men for each brigade, officered with one first and one second lieutenant, two sergeants, and two corporals, but no provision whatever is made for any additional medical officers, nor does the act provide for any control by medical officers over these infirmary corps, nor assign to these corps any fixed duties. ”

“ This corps is in charge of a chief surgeon and chief medical examiner, both prominent in their professions; and although the number of men in their charge exceeds forty thousand, any complicated or persistent disability of an employee secures the personal supervision of the chief surgeon. ”