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48
The upper floor contains a large nursery (with open verandahs
on two sides) and a ward of three beds for observation and isolation.
A four-bedded ward in Elmhurst was also allocated for observation
purposes for patients shewing slight temperatures or showing other
departure from the normal, and the six-bedded ward in that building
was reserved for convalescent cases, that is, patients at their 8th
or 9th day after confinement.
These additions and alterations again enabled the beds to be
fully occupied by patients. The work was completed on 3rd April,
1930.
The additional accommodation provided by the new building
will prove a useful factor in securing increased efficiency.
Conclusions.—The lessons to be learned from this outbreak are
that a Maternity Hospital requires constant vigilance on the part of
all concerned with its administration in securing the most rigid
surgical asepsis, and the immediate isolation of cases presenting the
slightest departure from the normal. The Borough Maternity
Hospital was opened early in 1921, and during the 9 years previous
to this unfortunate occurrence had enjoyed a remarkable immunity
from untoward incidents, and this in itself, may have tended to
cause the hospital to be regarded as invulnerable and to give rise to a
relaxation of that vigilance and minute attention to details by those
responsible which are ever necessary and imperative in a lying-in
hospital. Consisting as it does of two adapted dwelling houses, it
was not such an easy matter to reconstruct, fit and equip as if it
had been a new building erected for the purpose. Every effort
was, however, at the time made to bring it up to modern requirements
as far as was practicable.
As its popularity grew and the pressure on its beds increased,
the need for increased accommodation for isolation and observation,
and incidentally for the nursing staff as well, owing to the large
numbers of pupil midwives undergoing their training there, became
pressing. The outbreak of cases with slight temperatures and herpetic
eruptions in October and November, for instance, which from
the mildness of symptoms were not regarded as of serious import,
might have been limited or entirely avoided had such cases
been immediately removed to the isolation ward for observation,
pending removal to the isolation hospital where necessary or
desirable.
It is gratifying to record, however, that the measures taken to
deal with the emergency were rapidly successful in checking the
outbreak, and that with the exception of the two fatal cases referred
to, and in regard to which grave conditions were present requiring
serious surgical operative treatment, there were no other fatalities.
The Medical Officer of Health desires to record the valuable
assistance he received from Officers of the Ministry of Health in the
investigation of the outbreak and from Dr. Maccormac of St. James's