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77
have been admitted had to be taken—in 1887—to other Hospitals"
to the number of 355*—a course which " necessarily occasioned
great loss of time and waste of labour, as well as an increased
expense to the Ambulance Department." The Committee point
out that ''the administration of the Hospital is very expensive
pro rata with the number of patients, and that the present staff
with a few additional nurses and other subordinate officers
would be sufficient for a Hospital twice the size." Therefore,
and "taking into account the large and increasing population
of the district, as well as the increasing use made of the
Hospitals," the Committee consider it advisable to add considerably
to the existing accommodation, and they submit that
beds should be provided for at least 400 fever cases, irrespective
of those to be allotted to small-pox. The General Purposes Committee
recommended that the Memorandum be forwarded to
the Local Government Board "with the view to the attention
of the President being especially directed thereto in connection
with a recent resolution of the Managers regarding the
compulsory acquisition of additional land adjacent to the existing
sites of the Infectious Hospitals of the Board." There can be
no doubt that it would tend to economy if provision were made
for as many patients at each hospital as can be properly accommodated.
The Report of the General Purposes Committee was
adopted by the Managers.
Reference to the work of the Asylums Board as the Hospital
Authorities may fitly be completed by stating that in 1887, cases
were admitted at the several hospitals as follows:—smallpox
63, scarlet fever 5,933, typhus fever 38, enteric fever 500,
"other diseases," 66; total, 6,600. The numbers admitted in
the previous year were 2,298. In 1885 the admissions were
8,253, including 6,391 suffering from small-pox; scarlet fever
patients being 1,394, typhus fever 54, and enteric fever 226.
The following Table supplies information of considerable
interest with respect to the admissions in 1887:—
*Of these 355 cases, 152 were sent to the Novth-Western (Hampstead)
Hospital, 79 to the South-Western (Stockwell), 106 to the South-Eastern
(Deptford), and 18 to the Eastern (Homerton).