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27
Towards the close of the year a specific proposal, made by the Council of
this Borough, that certain of the disused small-pox hospitals should be utilised
for the purpose, received the support of many of the said authorities and the
National Association for the Prevention of Consumption.
The Hospital Saturday Fund is understood to be favourable to the
proposal to utilise some of the available accommodation, a proposal which, on
more than one occasion, has been commended by the Secretary of the Hospital
Sunday Fund.
The question, as one of principle, had been referred by the Managers to
the General Purposes Committee (i.e , the Board sitting in Committee), in
July, 1902, and the Committee in their report thereon (24th November) stated
that they had -
"given due consideration to the whole question" (of providing
sanatoria), "but having regard to the important issues involved, and
to the fact that there was not yet a general consensus of opinion
amongst the Metropolitan Authorities in favour of the Metropolitan
Asylums Board undertaking the treatment of consumptive patients
(they) had defe red consideration of the matter for twelve months."
The report was adopted.
The subject has since been revived on several occasions, on motions by
individual Managers, with the object of promoting inquiry, but no action has
been taken thereon.
The date when it will come up again for consideration is now near at
hand ; the present time, therefore, will hardly be deemed inappropriate for
recalling attention to the matter.
The hospitals which it is suggested should be used as sanatoria are
those at Gore Farm, in a beautiful country near Dartford. The site of 160
acres is on high ground, is salubrious and every way suitable for the purpose.
The hospitals were designed for the reception of about 1,850 small-pox
patients; one of them, however, containing 850 beds has never been brought
into use.
The small-pox hospitals in the vicinity of Long Reach, containing
upwards of 2,000 beds will, it is believed, suffice for the needs of the Metropolis
This would appear to be the opinion of the Managers who have recently
decided that Gore Farm Hospitals are not in future to be "reckoned as smallpox
hospitals."
The Local Government Board, moreover, are now in communication
with the Managers as to the use to which the said hospitals should in future
be applied.
It is thought that, with the addition of the Southern Convalescent
Hospital now in course of erection (on a very large site) at Carshalton, the