An inquest was held at Lambeth on Monday on a
builder's labourer named Townsend, who was insured under the National Insurance Act, and died last Friday. From the evidence given it appeared that the man, who was at work until four days before his death, went to see the nearest panel doctor on Tuesday and Wednesday. The doctor, who was overwhelmed with clerical work connected with signing cards—between two hundred and three hundred persons were waiting when Townsend called on Wednesday—had no time to examine the man, and diagnosed the case as one of indigestion or colic, when it was strangulated hernia. According to the evidence given by the pathologist of St. George's Hospital, his life would moat probably have been saved if he had been properly examined and promptly operated on. The coroner, in summing np, expressed his sincere hope that it would not occur again that a doctor representing the Government would be placed in such a position that he had no time to examine a case which might be grave and fatal, adding that it was a very painful thing to hold an inquest on a man whose life ought to have been saved. The jury, in returning a verdict of " death from natural causes," added a rider that more care should be exercised in examining insured persons by doctors under the Act, but excused the doctor in this case "owing to the scandalous amount of work imposed upon him under the Act."
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