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73
Willesden Urban District Council
HOSPITAL REPORT.
FOR TME YEAR - - - 1919.
By W. J. J. STEWART, M.D., D.P.H.,
Medical Superintendent.
To the Chairman and Members of the Willesden Urban District Council.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit the Twenty-ninth Annual Hospital Report.
It will be remembered that the accommodation of the hospital was increased by 56 beds in June
1918, and that it was decided by the Council as from that date to admit other than infectious cases
for treatment. This Report, therefore, deals with the first complete year of the hospital's work under
the new conditions.
That there was ample justification for the Council's action in extending the hospital is proved
by the fact that during the year under review the total number of patients admitted very nearly doubles
that of any previous year. Further, there is every evidence at the time of writing (March, 1920) that
the admissions for the current year will exceed those of 1919. That the hospital as it is at present
constituted fills a much-felt want there can be no question. In no direction is this perhaps so noticeable
as in the maternity wards, where the patients, almost without exception, speak of the great
comfort and convenience it is to them to be admitted here instead of remaining at home, where,
necessarily, their confinement creates something of the nature of a household upheaval. Much the
same may be said of the other wards, where children under 5 years, children of school age, and adults
are treated, for the average house is no better adapted for the accommodation of sick members of the
family than it is for cases of confinement.
It is, perhaps, advisable that I should map out before going further the method of admitting
the patients to hospital, such as has been arranged by your Medical Officer of Health since the hospital
was extended.
When the hospital was used for isolation purposes only, practically all the cases were admitted
on the strength of a notification sent in by medical practitioners to the Public Health Department,
although a few cases might be admitted on the authority of that department alone. As at present
arranged, the infectious cases are admitted much in the same way as hitherto, though a number of
cases are sent in by the Clinic Medical Officers. As regards the non-infectious cases, however, these
are drafted in by the medical officers of the Clinics, who select them from amongst the patients attending
their Clinic from day to day, and after arranging by telephone with the hospital for their admission.
Over and above the number admitted in that way a few cases may walk up to the hospital, and,
being obviously ill, are admitted without delay. Coming now to the maternity cases, these patients
are all examined by the Clinic medical officers, who notify the hospital of the date on which the mother
proposes to enter the hospital for her confinement, and the names and circumstances of the particular
cases are noted in the hospital books. In the event of a mother attending a Clinic and the medical
officer considers her case abnormal, arrangements are made for her to enter the hospital forthwith or
to attend on such day as the visiting obstetric surgeon is there, who, if he thinks fit, may admit the
patient there and then, or decide that there is no urgency. Such are the methods of admission in force,
and it may be said they work well.
Turning now to the number of patients admitted during the year, I have separated the infectious
cases from the non-infectious, as will be seen in Table No. 69. The infectious cases number 723,
or 45 less than in 1918, whilst the non-infectious cases are 980, making a total of 1,703 for the year,
which, if added to the 124 patients remaining over from 1918, gives a grand total of 1,827 under
treatment, a remarkable record for a hospital of only 220 beds. Of the number admitted 87 died,
there being 32 deaths amongst the infectious cases and 55 amongst the non-infectious. Over and