Remote & Rural Remedies

"Survey return from Donald Kennedy"

Plockton, by Lochalsh.

1851.

RCP/COL/4/8/238

Donald Kennedy was a medical practitioner in Plockton.

Plockton was a village in the parish of Lochalsh and had a population of around 500. For information on the parish, see the entry for Lochalsh.

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[[Addressee]]
Dr. Kennedy
Plockton
by Lochalsh

[[Survey]]
QUERIES

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

upwards of 20 years.

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

Till of late, often 40 miles

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

Sometimes on horseback, some
-time on foot, and frequently by boat.

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

Generally good, except in the
outskirts of the District.

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

In one respect
their position is improved, since the commencement of the Poor-law.
The late Proprietor of this estate, allowed me £20 annually, for
attendance on his own family, he also afforded medicine to those
unable to pay for them, and the use of a horse but since his death
these benefits have ceased. It is not yet known what the new
Proprietor may do. But in most cases, my services in this district have
been gratuitous.

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?

Knowing well all the localities in this district, I think that
an active practitioner, could attend to the medical wants of this Property
and that of Kintail extending to about 20 miles, and that another could
overtake the wants of the adjoining Property (Applecross)

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 hardships incident to a
Practitioner in this quarter can only be fully known by experience. Not only
have my services been oftentimes gratuitous, but frequently I have been
obliged to pay my own travelling expenses in visiting sick. I believe
that from this property, for the last 21 years, I have not received
more than £40, with the exception of the sum allowed by the Proprietor
and a small sum subscribed by some of the tenants, amounting at
present to no more than £6,,10/. For the last three years, I have had
a trifle for attending the Paupers of this Parish, and those of the parishes
of Kintail & Glensheil, which, from the difficulty of collecting the assessment
is very irregularly paid. Ever since my residence in this district I have
had the sole practice of the Property of Applecross. My oldest son (who
passed at the College of Surgeons of Edinburgh last year) now undertakes
that district, and I believe practises amongst them successfully, and to the
satisfaction of all, but from his not residing in the district and a wide ex
-tent of sea intervening he cannot do them sufficient justice. An attempt
was made by the people on the Property of Applecross to subscribe a salary
but the sum was so small, that it would not be worth any young man’s
trouble – He at present resides with me. In the Parish of Glenelg, south
from this, there is no medical man, and though the distance is great, I have
often been called there, and my son likewise. But I understand that the Parochial
Board have now secured a medical man to take charge of the poor. My
second son will have finished his medical studies in the course of two years,
he is at present at home, and employed in vacci
-nating.

[[Additional text]]

(signed)
Donald Kennedy R.N.