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affording to convalescents the fresh air and country life soconducive
to restoration of health, but also, owing to its capabilities
for expansion, by relieving pressure at the other hospitals. The
London hospitals, mainly used as receiving stations, did not, at
any period of the year, I believe, contain the maximum number of
patients sanctioned by the Commissioners in their " practical
recommendations." Towards the close of the year the Camp was
closed and dismantled, and renewed litigation (Fleet r. The
Managers, vide page 52), having ended unfavourably to the
plaintiff, who appealed against the judgment of Mr. Justice
Pearson, the Asylums Board took seriously in hand the deferred
subject of construction of a Permanent Hospital on the Gore
Farm Estate, about 135 acres in extent, plans and estimates for
which had previously been prepared by the Managers, and provisionally
approved by the Local Government Board.
The proposed hospital is mainly designed for the reception of
convalescent patients, and its erection has been rendered necessary,
if for no other reason, by the restrictions imposed on the action of
the Managers, in regard to the North Western and Western Hospitals,
by the compromises effected in stay of actual or threatened
litigation, and by the recommendation of the Bnyal Commission
that not more than 30 to 40 small-pox cases should be treated at
any one time in a hospital within the metropolitan area. During
the epidemic of 1881, the Managers had accommodation at their
disposal in the Metropolis for 1,000 small-pox cases, and the
Camp Hospital at Darenth provided for about 650 cases ; 1,650
beds in all—the maximum number occupied at any one time in
the course of that not very extraordinary epidemic. The Managers,
as at present situated, and apart from the Camp, possess accommodation
for 650 cases only, viz., 250 beds in hospitals on land,
50 in each of the five London hospitals, a maximum of which they
would be reluctant to avail themselves, and about 400 on shipboard ;
so that without the Camp there would be a deficiency to the
extent of at least 1,000 beds in the event of an average epidemic.
To supply this deficiency, the Managers propose to erect at
Darenth a hospital for 1,000 patients.