Assistant Medical Officers in Asylums: Their Status in the Specialty

Extract

A year ago this Association did four of us the honour of placing us on its Council as representatives of the large and ever-growing body of Assistant Medical Officers. Nowadays a good deal is expected of representatives; they are generally expected to give some account of their stewardship, and it occurred to us that we might make an effort to do something for our constituents by calling the attention of this Association to the status of Assistant Medical Officers in our specialty. We threw ourselves into the work the more readily because we felt strongly, and knew that we were supported in this feeling by not a few liberal-minded Superintendents, that Assistant Medical Officers, as a class, are not as well treated as they ought to be; that in many cases, indeed, considering their duties and responsibilities and the number of years they have devoted to the study of asylum work, they are neither accorded that consideration they deserve, nor are they adequately remunerated.