View report page

51
In the same (eleventh) Report it was pointed out that the time was favourable for action by
the Managers. The small-pox epidemic was at an end, and there was no longer any use for the
hospital accommodation so lavishly provided for sufferers from that disease. I suggested, therefore,
that some of the buildings might be turned to profitable use as hospitals for consumptives, thus
"avoiding, for the present and the immediate future, the outlay that would be involved should the
Managers be called upon to provide special hospitals for the purpose."
"If these hospitals" (the report continued) "should not be employed for the purpose,
they are likely to lie idle; for, if history should repeat itself, it may be many years before the
Managers will want them for small-pox." It was shown that "the yearly admissions to the
hospitals during the fifteen years 1886-1900, inclusive, exceeded, or approached, 1,000 in any
one year on only three occasions,* the largest number of patients in hospital at any one
time, in any year, being only 533, in 1893. For such a number, Long Reach Hospital and
the Ships (550 beds) would provide. Even in the late epidemic not more than 1,600 beds
were occupied at any one time, whereas the accommodation provided, or shortly to be provided,
including the as yet unfinished permanent hospital at Joyce Green, would shortly
aggregate 4,000 beds."
The report was referred by the Council to the Public Health Committee, by whose
direction a letter was addressed by the Town Clerk to the Local Government Board (December 4th)
as follows:—
"Sanatoria for Consumption.—This Council and their Public Health Committee have
recently had submitted to them a report by the Medical Officer of Health of this Borough
(Dr. T. Orme Dudfield), urging the desirability of the unused accommodation provided, and in
course of provision, by the Metropolitan Asylums Board, at the Orchard and Joyce Green
Hospitals† for small-pox cases, being utilised for the treatment of persons suffering from
consumption, and concur in the opinion of the Medical Officer of Health therein expressed,
"In this connection I am to point out that on the 24th December, 1901, the Council of
this Borough addressed a letter to the Local Government Board, earnestly representing the
desirability of steps being taken ' to give effect to the resolution of the Conference of Poor Law
Authorities, held on the 15th October, 1900, to the effect that the said Conference, having
discussed the question of open-air treatment of consumption, were of opinion:—
"'That the time has come when provision should be made for the treatment by this
method of the sick poor of the Metropolis suffering from phthisis, and it recommends
the matter for the consideration of the Local Government Board, with a view to the
necessary steps being taken by the Board for the carrying out of the proposal.'
"The above resolution was presented to the President by a deputation who, it was understood,
also commended to the favourable consideration of the Board the view that the Metropolitan
Asylums Board should be the authority for providing hospital accommodation for the
purpose.
"In the letter adverted to, it was stated that the Council felt assured that the Board
would agree with them as to the desirability of provision being made, with the least practicable
delay, and by some central authority, of sanatoria for the open-air treatment of consumptive
persons chargeable to the rates in the Metropolis.
" The Authority the Council had in view was the Asylums Board.
"The matter has since been taken up by many of the Metropolitan Borough Councils
(notably the Councils of Chelsea and Bermondsey), who have addressed communications to the
Managers, requesting them to undertake the provision of sanatoria; and the Managers have
stated that they would be prepared to consider the question should there be a general consensus
of opinion amongst the several Metropolitan Local Authorities favourable to the suggestion.
"A copy of the report of the Medical Officer of Health, above referred to, is enclosed
herewith; and the Council desire to invite the attention of the Local Government Board to
the suggestion contained therein, which they think deserving of serious consideration, that
some of the small-pox hospitals might be used, during inter-epidemic periods, for the reception
and treatment of consumptive persons chargeable to the rates.
* The admissions were as follows:—
The Year. Admissions.
1886 99
1887 56
1888 62
1889 5
1890 22
The Year. Admissions.
1891 63
1892 325
1893 2,376
1894 1,117
1895 941
The Year. Admissions.
1896 190
1897 70
1898 5
1899 18
1900 66
† It will be seen subsequently that the Gore Farm Hospitals were found to be more suitable for the purpose.