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8
EDMONTON MILITARY HOSPITAL.
Lieut.-Col. Spencer Mort's responsibilities continue, if they do not increase.
At the end of 1919 there were 1,460 beds for sailors and soldiers in this institution .
The auxiliary hospitals in outside areas are closed. At the end of 1919 the
number of inmates was 943, and resident staff 120—a total of 1,063 persons.
Lieut.-Col. Mort has kindly furnished me with some interesting particulars,
from which I gather that the status of this Hospital has very largely changed;
that is to say, it has come into full work as an orthopaedic hospital. Large
numbers of patients are being transferred from all military hospitals in England
to this one. Many ex-service men are also treated as out-patients. The
special departments which are now in working order are:—Massage and
electrical; curative workshops and educational (in which 80% of the patients
in the hospital have special training); gymnastic treatment for developing fine
movements, and general gymnastic treatment; nerve testing; plaster work;
casting and making special splints, to fit the patients accurately; also, as
another method of correcting a deformity for the time, that is to say, plastic
operations, as apart from surgical operations, are carried out.
A change has taken place by the vacation by the military patients of
wards at Edmonton Infirmary—formerly the Annexe and Sections—and this
has resulted in the occupation of the old Strand Workhouse completely, except
for one ward (vacant), to be filled up by patients in certain curative trades,
which are being expanded daily.
The number of operations for the period stated was 1,362.
The hospital has been visited by two General Officers Commanding-inChief,
namely, Lord Robertson and Lord Horne, who expressed great appreciation
of the work. This is now the biggest hospital in the Eastern Command,
and the only Special Surgical Hospital left in England.
As regards Infectious Disease amongst those on His Majesty's service,
6 cases were notified—1 scarlet fever, 1 diphtheria, 1 erysipelas, 1 pneumonia,
and 2 measles. As regards tubercle, I received notice of 4 cases of pulmonary
disease—all males—but no other forms of tubercle.
The Deaths that occurred in the Edmonton Military Hospital totalled
78 (six of them residents)—9 from wounds, 1 from a fall in the neighbourhood
out of an aeroplane, 1 suicide from cut-throat, and 67 from disease, of which
14 were from influenza and 8 from pneumonia. There were 5 deaths due to the
war which occurred outside this institution, viz., from an explosion at the
Edmonton Munition Company's Works, Weir Hall. So altogether 83 deaths
in Edmonton were due to the Great War, compared with 116 last year. These
deaths are not included in Table III.