Remote & Rural Remedies

"Survey return from Colin MacTavish"

Spring bank, by Bowmore.

1851.

RCP/COL/4/8/211

Colin MacTavish (also written as Mc Tavish and McTavish) was a medical practitioner in Spring bank, by Bowmore.

At present no additional information about this location is available.

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[[Addressee]]
Colin Mac Tavish Esq.
Surgeon
Spring bank
by Bowmore

[[Survey]]
QUERIES

1. How long have you practiced in the locality you at present occupy?

Twenty two years

2. What are the ordinary and what the greatest distances which you have to travel in visiting patients?

I almost daily go from two to four miles, from home, and
occasionally from fifteen to twenty

3. What means of conveyance do you employ in going long journeys?

A gig¹ when I visit near the
public road and horseback, when called to any inland place

4. What is the state of the roads in your neighbourhood?

The public roads, are for the most part
good, but very much the worse, to farms at a distance from the statutory
road

5. Is the position of medical men in general in your quarter improved, or otherwise, of late years?

The position of medical men – in this Island, is much worse than it had been
for many years after I came to it.

6. Supposing the people of the Highlands and Islands were generally able to pay for medical
advice, according to rates usually observed in other parts of the kingdom, what extent of
country in your locality would you regard as sufficient to occupy a single practitioner
fully?

Two of the Parishes, comprehending a distance, from
one extremity to the other, of about twenty miles would
not sufficiently remunerate a duly qualified practitioner
although he might have, very fatiguing and [arduous] employ-
ment occasionally.

7. Mention, if you please, any special hardships incident to your situation, such as you think
might be remedied by some general measure or enactment?

The poverty of the
people, is so great that few can afford to pay a medical man
for his services, although on all occasions they expect
and insist on prompt attendance, for which generally
speaking they are quite unable to pay, so long therefore
as this portion of the Highlands, and I believe I may
say the same of nearly all the other districts, is in the
hands of a Trustee - poor Proprietors with a [state] poorer
tenantry. nothing short of a Government Enactment
which would provide, for the proper remuneration
of medical men, and [partly] of the Fees obtained
from their patients. I cannot see how efficient
medical practitioners can be supported in this place
for although [these] of us, are allowed thirty five pounds, and some odd shillings
for attending the paupers on the roll, some of us expend a large proportion
of that sum in medicine &c² for people in indigent circumstances who
though not in the receipt of Parochial relief, cannot afford to pay for
medical attendance. and further, the discomfort a medical man endure
in being obliged to ride or drive eight or ten miles, in severe weather, and then forced
to remain probably, for many hours, in a miserable hovel, without cleanliness
warmth and almost invariably without food - is known only to those who have
experienced it

[[Additional text]]

Islay 4 Sept 1851
Colin MacTavish

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Explanatory notes:

1. A gig is a light two-wheeled carriage pulled by one horse.
2. “&c” is shorthand for etcetera.