PROMOTION IN THE BRITISH MEDICAL SERVICE.
probable, as ve binted last month, th^t the scheme for promotion in the .British Medical Service 'will have been settled ere this, and that the Assistant Surgeons of
It seems
more
than
1857 will obtain material relief from the
helpless
condition ip.
which many of them are now placed. In fact, in some cases, appears that assistant surgeons of eleven or twelve years' standhave two hundred officers above
them, to be promoted or disposed of, before they can gain the rank and pay of surgeon. They can hardly count on more than twenty atepa
ing
otherwise a
THE INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.
13S
a year, so that these unfortunate gentlemen must, under existing circumstances, look forward to remaining assistant surgeons, until they have been twenty-one years in Her Majesty's
service. It is true, the pay of
an
assistant surgeon increases every
day, but this by no means compensates an officer for so serious a delay in his promotion as that above noticed?throwing on him some twenty years of the drudgery connected with his position ; and in these days when the mania for reports and returns is so virulent among our superiors, the post of an assistant surgeon with a British regiment, especially in India, is a most onerous one, tenable in fact only by those whose brains are endowed with a capacity fcr figures. We expect many an officer's heart is well nigh broken, and his zeal for the honor and practice of his profession destroyed by prospects, such as those we have noticed, looming in the distance. A recent writer in the Tall Mall Budget, discussing this state of things, demonstrates the fact that not only does ihe present stagnation in promotion affect deleteriously the energies and, therefore, the efficiency of the British Medical Service, but that this system, if continued, will cost the country nearly ?20,000 per annum more than at present, although the numerical strength of the service may remain stationary. The remedy proposed is to allow the optional retirement of officers on ?1 a day after twenty years, instead of twenty-five years' service, provided the retiring surgeon will agree to serve in the medical reserve of the army up to a certain age; secondly, that the seniors in the inspectorial ranks should retire at the age of fifty-five years, or after holding their appointments for five years. Such a scheme would obviate the necessity for enlisting five years
a
by
2s. 6d. per
number of young medical men to serve with the army in of war. It was a push of this kind, as we all know, in the
case
case
of the Crimean "War and the Indian
occasioned the
existing
dead lock in
Mutiny, which has promotion in the British
Medical Service.
argued that the system in force in the Service, advantages; promotion from the rank of an assistant to a surgeon taking place at the end of twelve years. Nevertheless, we do not receive our ?1 a day pension until the expiration of twenty-five years' service, three years of this time being allowed as leave on half pay to Europe, but the advantages of a reserve medical force are not so apparent in the case of the Indian, which already possesses its reserve in the Civil Medical Service, as in the British Medical Department; consequently, we incline to the scheme above proposed. At the same time, we heartily concur in the ideas referred to by the above-mentioned journal as to the general bearing of the question at issue. It would certainly appear better to expend a smaller sum in reproducing a normal rate of promotion, and in procuring at the same time other ulterior advantages, than to continue to dispense the excess of expenditure, which is at present inevitable, to the hardship of the recipients, to whom the small additional pay compensates in no possible manner for the absence of any prospect of rising in their prefession. In this we refer only to those who really do take an interest in their profession, and desire to excel in it. There are, undoubtedly, in the medical department as in the rest of the army men who make no attempt to keep pace with the times, who allow themselves to grow rusty in their work, and who make no effort to improve themselves. Such men are to be got rid of as soon It may, of course, be
Indian Medical
has its
as
possible,
[June 1,
in the medical branch even sooner than in the
for the lives of
men
are
1872. others,
in their hands.
"\Ye think, therefore, selection should be intro-
that some system of examination or duced into the Medical Service whereby the good men should be brought to the front, and the idle and ignorant weeded out. This weeding out would, in addition to other advantages, tend to
promotion of the efficient men, while it would application and study which is now almost entirely wanting. By holding out some prospect to good men that by energy and application to their profession they can carve out for themselves a way to preferment, it will surely be that they will rise to the occasion, and that their M'ork will be far more efficiently performed. quicken
offer
an
the
inducement to
probable, as ve binted last month, th^t the scheme for promotion in the .British Medical Service 'will have been settled ere this, and that the Assistant Surgeons of
It seems
more
than
1857 will obtain material relief from the
helpless
condition ip.
which many of them are now placed. In fact, in some cases, appears that assistant surgeons of eleven or twelve years' standhave two hundred officers above
them, to be promoted or disposed of, before they can gain the rank and pay of surgeon. They can hardly count on more than twenty atepa
ing
otherwise a
THE INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.
13S
a year, so that these unfortunate gentlemen must, under existing circumstances, look forward to remaining assistant surgeons, until they have been twenty-one years in Her Majesty's
service. It is true, the pay of
an
assistant surgeon increases every
day, but this by no means compensates an officer for so serious a delay in his promotion as that above noticed?throwing on him some twenty years of the drudgery connected with his position ; and in these days when the mania for reports and returns is so virulent among our superiors, the post of an assistant surgeon with a British regiment, especially in India, is a most onerous one, tenable in fact only by those whose brains are endowed with a capacity fcr figures. We expect many an officer's heart is well nigh broken, and his zeal for the honor and practice of his profession destroyed by prospects, such as those we have noticed, looming in the distance. A recent writer in the Tall Mall Budget, discussing this state of things, demonstrates the fact that not only does ihe present stagnation in promotion affect deleteriously the energies and, therefore, the efficiency of the British Medical Service, but that this system, if continued, will cost the country nearly ?20,000 per annum more than at present, although the numerical strength of the service may remain stationary. The remedy proposed is to allow the optional retirement of officers on ?1 a day after twenty years, instead of twenty-five years' service, provided the retiring surgeon will agree to serve in the medical reserve of the army up to a certain age; secondly, that the seniors in the inspectorial ranks should retire at the age of fifty-five years, or after holding their appointments for five years. Such a scheme would obviate the necessity for enlisting five years
a
by
2s. 6d. per
number of young medical men to serve with the army in of war. It was a push of this kind, as we all know, in the
case
case
of the Crimean "War and the Indian
occasioned the
existing
dead lock in
Mutiny, which has promotion in the British
Medical Service.
argued that the system in force in the Service, advantages; promotion from the rank of an assistant to a surgeon taking place at the end of twelve years. Nevertheless, we do not receive our ?1 a day pension until the expiration of twenty-five years' service, three years of this time being allowed as leave on half pay to Europe, but the advantages of a reserve medical force are not so apparent in the case of the Indian, which already possesses its reserve in the Civil Medical Service, as in the British Medical Department; consequently, we incline to the scheme above proposed. At the same time, we heartily concur in the ideas referred to by the above-mentioned journal as to the general bearing of the question at issue. It would certainly appear better to expend a smaller sum in reproducing a normal rate of promotion, and in procuring at the same time other ulterior advantages, than to continue to dispense the excess of expenditure, which is at present inevitable, to the hardship of the recipients, to whom the small additional pay compensates in no possible manner for the absence of any prospect of rising in their prefession. In this we refer only to those who really do take an interest in their profession, and desire to excel in it. There are, undoubtedly, in the medical department as in the rest of the army men who make no attempt to keep pace with the times, who allow themselves to grow rusty in their work, and who make no effort to improve themselves. Such men are to be got rid of as soon It may, of course, be
Indian Medical
has its
as
possible,
[June 1,
in the medical branch even sooner than in the
for the lives of
men
are
1872. others,
in their hands.
"\Ye think, therefore, selection should be intro-
that some system of examination or duced into the Medical Service whereby the good men should be brought to the front, and the idle and ignorant weeded out. This weeding out would, in addition to other advantages, tend to
promotion of the efficient men, while it would application and study which is now almost entirely wanting. By holding out some prospect to good men that by energy and application to their profession they can carve out for themselves a way to preferment, it will surely be that they will rise to the occasion, and that their M'ork will be far more efficiently performed. quicken
offer
an
the
inducement to
