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110
awaits settlement. With reference to(7), I have stated in former
Reports, the grounds of my objection to the contract system,
which happily is no longer in question, free admission to the
hospitals having now been provided for by the Public Health
Act, as already stated (page 91).
HOSPITALS COMMISSION
In 1881, a Royal Commission was appointed to consider
the questionof Hospital Accommodation for Infectious Diseases,
before which I gave evidence, a summary of which will be found
in my Annual Report for 1881 (pages 50—60 inclusive). In
my Annual Report for 1882-83 (pages 28—39 inclusive. I dealt
with the report of the Commission, and reproduced their
"Practical Recommendations" which were in accord with the
principles, in regard to public health administration, for which
I had long contended. Amongst others, which first found
expression in these Reports, I may refer to (1) Compulsory
Notification of all cases of infectious disease; (2) Compulsory
Removal of the sick to hospital when necessary for isolation;
(3) Unity in Hospital Administration, and Representation of
the Sanitary Authorities on the Hospital Board; (4) Separation
of hospital treatment from all connection with poor relief, or in
other words, abolition of distinction of Pauper and Nonpauper
in respect to the treatment of infectious diseases; (5)
Free hospital treatment of infectious diseases; (6) Provision of
additional hospitals in London, with skeleton staff of doctors,
nurses, and other officers, capable of extension so as to cope
with all emergencies; (7) Provision of hospitals in the country
for removable cases of small-pox, and for the reception of
convalescents generally; and (8) Transference of Vaccination
arrangements to the Hospital (that is the Sanitary) Authority.
Previous sections of this Report will have shown to how large
an extent, either by law or in practice, my views have already
been carried out. Parliamentary sanction, I doubt not, will
sooner or later be given to those recommendations, which
are as yet in advance of public opinion.