View report page

87
"Joyce Green Estate. —On this Estate the Managers
proposed to provide beds for 940 patients, but the Local
Government Board have refused to sanction provision being
made for more than 400 patients."
Thus it appears that this Metropolis is endowed, in possession,
or in early prospect, with accommodation for nearly
6,200 patients suffering from fever and diphtheria: a number
more than double that recommended by the Royal Commission
(3,000); irrespective of about 750 beds at Gore Farm,
generally available in the abeyance of small-pox. Time
alone can determine whether this provision will suffice for
the requirements of the Metropolis. For small pox patients
the accommodation is, or will be, to the extent of nearly
1,900 beds: a number considerably below the recommendation
of the Royal Commission (2,700); but which I am sanguine
will suffice, seeing how much more effectually this disease has
been controlled since the practice of removing the sick out of
London for isolation and treatment, first done upon my advice in
May 1881, has been perfected by the Managers, who, since 1884,
have practically ceased to use the town hospitals for the
isolation of small-pox, now removing direct from their homes
to the Ships all patients suffering from this disease—with
what beneficent results let the statistics of mortality testify.
Deficiency of Fever Hospital Accommodation in
1896.—In the four-weekly report dated July 20th, I had to
report that much difficulty had been experienced in obtaining
the requisite number of beds for the sick. On some days as
many as a dozen patients were detained at home awaiting
removal, the majority of them suffering from scarlet fever,
others from diphtheria. This state of things, which continued
more or less throughout the latter half of the year, was
mitigated to a certain extent by the opening of the Brook
Hospital.