John Macqueen

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John Macqueen (27 June 1895 – 21 June 1969)[1][2] was a Scottish medical doctor and medical administrator working in Palestine during the British Mandate.

Biography

Staff of Haifa Hospital, circa 1939
Graduate nurses Haifa Hospital, circa 1939. Dr Macqueen in center

Macqueen was born in the

Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force where he was mentioned twice in despatches.[4]

In September 1919 he joined the Occupied Enemy Territory Administration (OETA) in Palestine and nine months later he was appointed Assistant Principal Medical Officer, based in Jerusalem.[5]

During the late 1920s, as deputy head of the Palestinian Department of Health, Dr Macqueen was involved in the establishment of the first infant welfare centres in Jerusalem's

Bayt Jala.[6][7]

At that time the Health department, with funding from the

St Johns Eye Hospital, Jerusalem. Leprosy was disappearing, and there were vaccines for the other infectious diseases found in Palestine: rabies, cholera and smallpox.[7]

In 1924 he was appointed Senior Medical Officer in Hafia.[8] In 1930 he was given particular responsibility for the railways and the quarantine of travellers. It was during this period that he completed his medical training. He was awarded an MD in 1931, and a DPH in 1933, both at Edinburgh.[9] In 1931 Macqueen was appointed Senior Medical Officer in Haifa and Samaria District and in 1938 he became director of the new Government Haifa Hospital, designed by Erich Mendelsohn. It had 261 beds and included a nursing school.[10] In the summer of 1941 during an outbreak of Bubonic plague he was in charge of the demolition of the several thousand huts and temporary homes in and around Haifa and introduced a program of rat extermination. This campaign was successful but in 1944 the disease re-appeared killing eleven people in Haifa and spreading up and down Palestine.[11]

Maronite
Boy Scouts, 1939. Center: Dr John Macqueen Chief Medical Officer for Haifa

The Department of Health was severely under funded. In 1936 he attempted to introduce a health insurance scheme to pay for medical care in

1936–1939 revolt. In 1938 and again in 1945 he put forward similar proposals for funding health care, modelled on the insurance systems used in England. In a report he pointed out that in Jenin with a population of 50,000 there were four doctors whereas amongst a similar population in Great Britain you would expect to find 25.[12]

Another area of concern was the lack of care for mental patients. There was only an asylum in Bethlehem and a section of Acre prison being maintained by the state; a total of around 160 beds. In 1942 there was a critical fall in conditions in privately run mental hospitals in Tel Aviv when the municipality stopped funding them. At the time the High Commissioner, Sir Harold MacMichael, commented that the treatment of the insane in Palestine "reflected badly on the Government".[13] The 1946 "Survey of Palestine", prepared for the

Venereal disease had become endemic.[14]

John MacQueen retired in 1946.[15] In 1951 he was elected a member of the Harveian Society of Edinburgh.

References

  1. ^ Birth certificate Killearnan, Ross, Scotland GROS data 068/000010
  2. ^ Memorial card for his funeral
  3. ^ The Medical Register for 1935
  4. Sir Stanley Maude
    , KCB, Commander in Chief, MEF.
  5. ^ Civil Service List 1939 and relevant Palestine Staff lists.
  6. ISBN 0-7195-5707 0
    .p.142. Memo from Macqueen to Head of Health Department, Col. George Heron. 23 December 1926
  7. ^ a b Encyclopædia Britannica. Fourteenth Edition (1929). Volume 17. p.134
  8. ^ Medical Register 1935
  9. ^ Medical Register for 1935
  10. ISBN 0-88728-216-4
    . pp.618,622
  11. ^ Shepherd. p.138. Memo from Macqueen to Chief Secretary. 20 January 1942
  12. ^ Shepherd. pp.149,150. Macqueen to R.F. Scrivener, Assistant District Commissioner, Haifa & Samaria. 4 December 1938. ISA RG10 79/5 M1642. MacQueen to Chief Secretary, ISA RG19 M 29/45 M225. 13 May 1945.
  13. ^ Shepherd. p.147. Letter to Chichester. ISA RG10 M 45/5 M1576. 5 March 1947.
  14. ^ Survey. pp,621,626,709.
  15. ^ Palestine Staff lists.

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