Remote & Rural Remedies

"Survey return from Dr. Hamilton"

Stromness.

1851.

RCP/COL/4/8/250

Dr. Hamilton was a medical practitioner in Stromness.

Stromness was a parish and a market and seaport town on the Orkney Islands. In 1887, its population was 2410. It had a good and accessible harbour, with many inhabitants employed in fishing. The parish also had a distillery, ropeworks and shipbuilding yards.

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[[Addressee]]
Dr Hamilton
Stromness

[[Survey]]
QUERIES

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

17 years

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

From one mile to 16

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

By boat & horseback

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

very bad

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

Very much improved during the last
twenty years, previous to which, there
was no legally qualified Practitioners
in this neighbourhood

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?

It is difficult to answer this question
satisfactorily, but I should say about 15 square
miles might be sufficiently supplied by one
active Surgeon

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 principal hardships that medical
men are subjected to in this quarter arises
from the nonpayment of their charges, (which
are necessarily very low) in consequence of the
poverty of the inhabitants, but I am not aware
that any enactment could remedy the case