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they would be glad to be informed as soon as any decision had
been arrived at thereon.
Here the matter rests—for the present.
FEVER HOSPITAL ACCOMMODATION.
The Royal Commission recommended provision of sites and
buildings capable of accommodating 3,000 fever patients. "Of
the 3,000 cases, those in the earlier stages, probably about half,
should be provided for in the near neighbourhood of London; the
other half—the convalescents—in two other country hospitals."
The beds now available at the five London hospitals are nearly
1,400 in number, the recommendation of the Committee that
these Hospitals should "become in the main Fever Hospitals"
having been carried into effect. These hospitals, the Commission
thought, would, "with the aid of another hospital, which appears
to be indispensable for the east of London, fully accommodate all
the cases requiring London treatment." With a view to give
effect to the recommendation of the Commission, the Managers
originally intended to provide another hospital for East London.
This intention was subsequently abandoned and a site was obtained
at Winchmore Hill, nine miles north-east from Charing Cross, on
which the "Northern Hospital" for 500 patients has been erected.
It was designed mainly for convalescing and convalescent fever
cases; but acute cases will not be excluded should the London
accommodation prove inadequate at any time.
The total provision of fever hospital accommodation, therefore,
is now nearly 1,900 beds, a number that falls far short of the
recommendation of the Commission. "On the other hand," as
we are told by the Asylums Board, "the number of fever patients
annually under treatment at any one time during the past year,
though in advance of those of the eight previous years, has not
exceeded 742," so that, as it is further stated, "up to the present
time the recommendation that the Managers should provide for
3,000 fever patients has not been justified by subsequent experience."
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