View report page

Hospital Accommodation.
The amount expended in Poor Law Belief was £61,216 2s. 0¼ o|d.
The Infirmary in Brunswick Square, with its 828 beds, is the chief
institution for gratuitous in-door medical relief. To this are usually
admitted the more serious and acute cases, and a large amount of
surgical work is carried out there. It is usually well filled, 4,688
patients having been admitted during the year.
Constance Road Institution, 906 beds, and Gordon Road
Institution, 867 beds, are used more especially for the young, the
aged and infirm, and for the chronic cases. St. Thomas's, Guy's,
and King's College receive a considerable proportion of the sick
people, especially the latter, situated as it is in a part easily
accessible from the poorer parts of the Borough. The special
hospitals, near and far, also receive their quota; in fact it may be
said that there is no difficulty in getting advice for any one unable
to pay, and it is only where circumstances demand treatment as an
in-patient that difficulties arise.
Closet Accommodation.
A certain amount of work which calls for no special mention
has been carried out chiefly as a result of inspections of factories
and workshops. The water-carriage system being practically
universal, no trouble has arisen in the way of conversion of
privies, etc.
The point has arisen as to how far it is possible to insist on the
provision of sanitary conveniences in the various sports grounds of
the Borough where at the present time there may be no sanitary
nuisance, but where at the same time no accommodation is
provided. The subject is really a legal one, and it is possible that
a case may be decided in the Courts which will clearly define the
position.
Scavenging.
There is no great difference from last year as regards scavenging,
but I would still urge on the Council the great desirability of trying
the effect, certainly in the summer months, of a daily collection in
the poorest parts of the Borough, where the facilities for dust disposal
are of the crudest and most unsatisfactory nature and the means
of storage of food are of the most meagre description. For this
purpose I would advise the selection of the Secretan Boad area as
a most promising spot for the experiment. Boxes could be deposited
outside the houses and removed with the least possible
delay, and without the loss of time to the dustmen in going
through the houses (itself undesirable). This would run counter to
the by-laws, but I doubt if the condition of the boxes would be
much worse than the galvanized iron bins after a couple of months'
wear. The discussion of scavenging may be humdrum and
unsensational, but its importance to the well-being of the community
is such that it merits a word in favour of this means of
collection from boxes as practised in many places here and abroad.