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6
Superannuation applicable throughout all hospitals both Municipal
and Voluntary would undoubtedly help in securing a larger
flow of recruits.
Another problem of recent years with regard to the nursing
staffs of hospitals, has been brought about by the increase in the
number of Nursing Co-operations. These co-operations are hiring
agencies, and they offer two inducements, namely: the nurse lives
out in between her engagements, and secondly, she receives a
higher rate of salary. The result in practice is that a nurse, on
obtaining her final certificate prefers to leave her training hospital
and join a co-operation, from which she may be hired out to
the same hospital she has recently left, at a rate of pay considerably
higher than if she had continued at the hospital.
Mayday Hospital took a prominent part in the nursing and
treatment of the Typhoid cases, and as shown in the section dealing
with the outbreak, at one time had 157 cases in the wards. There
was, however, always a large margin of empty beds. For the
nursing of these cases 56 additional nurses were engaged, and the
average number of patients per nurse never exceeded three.
The Borough Hospital also had a busy year owing to the
increase in the admissions of Diphtheria, Scarlet Fever and Typhoid
Fever. In connection with the accommodation of the Typhoid
cases a Scarlet Fever ward was taken over by the transfer of convalescent
Scarlet Fever cases to Coombe Cliff. The highest number
of Typhoid oases in the Hospital at any one time was 40. Twenty
additional nursing staff were engaged to deal with the cases.
This hospital is small taking into consideration the size of the
Borough, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to accommodate
cases requiring admission. There is a greater demand for the
admission of severe cases of Measles and Whooping Cough than
formerly. This is to be welcomed, as adequate nursing plays a
very important function in the managment of these ca-es. With
the multiplication of flats and the limited home facilities, hospital
is decidedly to be recommended, but it has been necessary to refuse
admission to all but outstandingly urgent cases. The situation of
the hospital is not a happy one, as it is next door to the Beddington
Sewage Farm, and much trouble is experienced from flies and
smell. Also in the last few years with the growth of factories
along Purley Way, and the development of a large private housing
estate, the open land around the hospital has been encroached
on. The hospital, also, wants modernising in several respects,
whilst the action of the clay soil upon which it stands, is a source
of continual expense, in the repair of the buildings.