View report page

10
The patients spent 26,804 days in hospital, so that the average
cost of each patient per day was 7/10d. Taking the patient-days,
26,804, and the staff-days, 11,477, or a total of 38,281, the average
cost of food works out at 1O¾d. per person per day.
MATERNITY HOSPITAL.
The number of patients admitted to the Maternity Hospital
during the year, 1st April, 1932, to the 31st March, 1933, was 524.
This number is 22 less than in the previous year, when 546 cases
were admitted. The reduction in the number was not due to the
lessened demand for admission, but to the restriction in the bookings
which had to be insisted upon on account of the overcrowding
arising in the wards at times, especially when there were several
ante-natal cases under hospital treatment. It is impossible to
regulate the cases in a maternity hospital to a more or less constant
number, for no matter how one may plan, there may be at one time
less than two-thirds of the number of beds occupied and at another
the number of patients to be provided for may be increased by
50 per cent, over the recognised number of beds. This is shown
by the number of patients in hospital varying during the year from
13 to 33.
So great is the demand for admission to the Maternity Hospital
that the beds are now completely booked at least three months in
advance all the year through. This fact indicates the need for
the further extension of the Hospital which was decided upon by
the Committee, but which was postponed on account of the financial
crisis.