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in such a manner as to cease to be a source of
danger; and to that end Local Authorities, either
alone or in combination, are empowered to provide
Isolation Hospitals for the reception of sick
persons, and their removal is compulsory under
certain conditions.
Under these circumstances, if the Isolation
Hospital is to be of any real value, which is of
course what is intended, it should surely be the aim
of the Council to offer the greatest inducements to
promote its use, and it is a question of considerable
moment whether it is politic to keep to the present
scale of charges. The Hospital is maintained out
of the rates, and so by charging patients or their
guardians for maintenance a double charge is really
inflicted on certain individuals; and since it is most
certainly the fact that the community at large is a
considerable gainer when those of its infectious sick
who have not very perfect means of isolation are
removed to the Hospital, it surely behoves the
Sanitary Authority so to arrange the charges that
they should form no obstacle to the free use of the
institution. I would offer as a suggestion for
consideration that all houses should be classified
as A, B and C based on the rateable value. Patients
from C might be admitted free, the charges on B
cases modified, while those of the A class might
remain as at present.
The care and attention bestowed on all
alike at the Isolation Hospital by the Staff, has
tended largely to minimise objections to removal;
while the results obtained have undoubtedly been
better than would or could have been possible in
many cases if treated at their own homes. The
personal experience of nearly thirty years practice,
inclusive of the records of the last eight years, has
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