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to be taken of the latest advances in medical and surgical science, while out-of-date
equipment is being replaced where necessary by up-to-date appliances. Striking
progress has been made in maternity and ante-natal work. There were 723
maternity beds in the Council's hospitals in 1934. and, of the 56,853 births in the
whole of London in that year, no fewer than 12,738 took place in the Council's
hospitals.
Further developments have been the organisation of a scheme of consultant
and specialist services covering every branch of medicine and surgery, and of a
pathological service providing all the necessary facilities in this important branch
of medical work.
Finally, there has been considerable extension of the facilities for medical and
nursing instruction, the most notable development in medical education being the
establishment at Hammersmith hospital of the British postgraduate medical school.
The opening of the school will undoubtedly mark one of the most important
steps in medical progress.
The foregoing brief account of the progress of the hospital service during His
Majesty's reign may be illustrated by the following table of statistics. The first
two columns of figures relate to only twenty-two of the twenty-nine general hospitals
transferred to the Council in 1930, as statistics for the year 1910 were not available
from all the hospitals. The last column, however, gives statistics for all the general
hospitals now under the Council's control:—
Particulars relating to
22 general hospitals.
All general hospitals.
1910. 1934.
1934.
Number of beds 12,899 14,051 19.037 (excluding 658
maternity cots).
Number of admissions 63,393 127,141 155,915.
Number of patients admitted with 51,110 (80 per 23,509(18-5per 27,843 (17-8 per cent,
relieving officers' orders. cent, of total cent of total of total admissions).
admissions). admissions).
Number of medical staff, excluding 73 (1 to 176 beds) 182 (1 to 77 beds) 238 (1 to 79 beds),
consultants.
Number of nursing staff 1,620(1 to 8 beds) 4,315 (1 to 6,076 (1 to 3 beds).
3.25 beds).
Number of operations 4,764 28,537 33,689.
Number of births in hospital 953 10,909 (excluding 12,636 (excluding 512
449 still-births). still-birth3).
Extent of X-ray work (number of Practically none. 110,595 130,830.
films taken).
Number of out-patients ... ... Very few (no ante- 90,526 (including 109,368 (including
natal patients). 11,273 ante-natal 13,065 ante-natal
patients). patients).
The special hospitals of the Council were the hospitals of the late Metropolitan
Asylums Board and were taken over by the Council under the provisions of the
Local Government Act, 1929.
In 1910 there were 13 hospitals for infectious diseases other than smallpox.
This latter disease was dealt with in what are now known as the River hospitals,
situated at Dartford, and during the whole of the last twenty-five years the greater
part of the accommodation provided in the River hospitals, when not required for
smallpox, has been used or available for other infectious diseases. One of the infectious
diseases hospitals was in 1912 converted into a mental hospital. It is interesting
to note that measles and whooping-cough were first admitted to the infectious
diseases hospitals in December, 1910.
In addition to the infectious diseases hospitals, the late Board had a number
of special hospitals and schools for various classes of poor-law children. There
were in 1910 two residential schools for children suffering from contagious diseases
of the eyes (one at Brentwood, Essex, and one at Swanley, Kent), one residential