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Board"—a number which will probably prove inadequate if the
above computation is correct, viz.: that 6,000 beds could have been
filled with scarlet fever patients alone, in 1893 ; seeing that what is
called "Fever Hospital accommodation" includes provision of beds
for enteric fever and diphtheria, and for isolation purposes also.
Reference is made to the hospital—to be called the Brook Hospital—
—for about 500 fever and diphtheria patients, about to be erected at
Shooter's Hill, at an estimated cost of some £200,000; and it is
stated that architects have been invited to send in competitive plans
for the erection of permanent hospitals, affording accommodation for
another 1,000 patients (500 in each hospital) on the sites at Tooting
Graveney and Hither Green, to be called respectively the Fountain
Hospital and the Park Hospital. The Chairman concludes this
portion of his report with an account of the alterations and additions
in present contemplation at the existing Fever Hospitals, and which
will provide considerably increased accommodation at five of these
institutions.
Smallpox Hospital Accommodation.—Reference is made to the outbreak
of small-pox in the early part of the year, which although fortunately
it did not attain serious proportions, yet, owing to the "Castalia,"
being in dock for extensive repairs, necessitated the re-opening, for
small-pox patients, of the Gore Farm (Upper) Hospital, which in 1892
had been temporarily appropriated to scarlet fever convalescents. Profiting
by past experience, and recognising the necessity of being prepared
to deal promptly with any future epidemic, the Managers have, during
the twelve months, not only increased the accommodation at their
disposal from 1,100 to 1,198 beds, by the erection of additional
pavilions at the Gore Farm Hospital, but they have also recently
applied to the Local Government Board for their assent to the purchase
of 218 acres of land between Long Reach and Dartford, as a
site for a new hospital for acute cases of small-pox. The retention
of the Hospital Ships in readiness for emergency, and the provision
of accommodation for convalescents at Gore Farm, as parts of a
system enabling the Managers to convey every case of small-pox
out of London, immediately on application for removal, is justified
"as an insurance against small-pox," and is defended on grounds of
true economy.