Clinical Practice and Patient Care

Abstract

In the absence of centralised state objectives or policies, responsibility for diagnosis, treatment and prevention fell to medical professionals whose work was conducted on a largely individual or institutional basis. This chapter offers a mosaic of medical practice, examining the nature and limitations of the venereological work conducted by Medical Officers of Health, club and panel doctors and Poor Law medical officers. These are situated within wider frameworks of healthcare provisions. Although not the only professional channels through which doctors encountered venereal diseases, they constituted important case studies for the ways that venereal diseases were studied, diagnosed and treated.