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Priern Barnet Joint Hospital Committee for the admission of cases
of infectious disease from Southgate to the Joint Committee's
Hospital at Coppetts Road. Consideration of these arrangements,
together with a survey of the manner in which they have operated,
more .properly belongs to the Annual Report for 1947, but it may
be stated here that negotiations with the Joint Hospital Committee
were extremely cordial and that, to date, the arrangements have
worked very well indeed.
Quite apart from any financial consideration, which should
never be allowed to outweigh such an important principle as the
safeguarding of health and the prevention and treatment of infectious
disease, the waiving of our hospital rights in favour of the County
Council was a progressive, well-considered step. There can be
little doubt that the beds at our Isolation Hospital will be much
more advantageously used to deal with the very urgent maternity
problem than in the treatment of infectious diseases. Alternative
accommodation at a well-equipped, adequately staffed and reasonably
situated Isolation Hospital was immediately available, while
the transfer of approximately 50 beds for maternity purposes
threw into the scale a small, but none the less valuable weight. The
fact that those 50 beds have not yet been fully utilised does not
affect the issue; the Council acted wisely and in the best interests
of the Borough.
It is fitting here that we should pay a last tribute to the services
rendered to the community by the Southgate Isolation Hospital.
The Hospital, situated in what was then known as Tile Kiln Lane,
wras formally opened on January 4th, 1902, with accommodation
for 24 patients, the first patient being admitted on February 7th of
that year. The limited accommodation then available may
be gathered from a statement made by the Medical Officer of
Health for the Borough in his report for the year 1902. Dr.
Ransome then stated: "If I have one patient of each sex suffering
from the same disease at the same time I am unable to take in
any case of any other disease." It is also interesting to note that
the average detention in Hospital of cases of scarlet fever was then
50 days, while cases of diphtheria were only retained for an average
of 26 days.
The Hospital was extended in 1910, and further extended by
the addition of a cubicle block in 1929. This latter addition
brought the total accommodation available at the Hospital up to a
practical maximum of 60 beds.
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