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85
previous year. The greatest number of patients suffering
from Fever and Diphtheria under treatment at any one time,
was 4,389, exceeding by 1,389 the number of beds (3,000),
for all classes of fever, which the Royal Commission, in 1882,
considered would be sufficient for the requirements of the
Metropolis. In 1882, however, diphtheria cases were not admitted
to the hospitals; notification was not in force; and the
Commissioners, presumably, did not anticipate the present
extensive use of these institutions by the general public. It
is not surprising, therefore, that they under-estimated the
requirements of the Metropolis. To the Asylums Board,
moreover, their estimate seemed, even so late as 1886, to
err largely by excess.
The Chairman states that in 1892, a greater proportion
than heretofore of the total number of the sufferers from
scarlet fever were admitted to the hospitals, and that the
experience of that year has demonstrated the insufficiency
of the Fever accommodation at the disposal of the Managers,
for the requirements of the Metropolis. Reference is made
to the obstacles encountered, and the difficulties experienced,
by the Managers, in their endeavours to keep pace with, and
to meet, the exigencies of the outbreak, of which some
account is given in another part of this report.* For a time it
was necessary to limit the admission of fever patients to the
vacancies occasioned by discharges and deaths, and to give
preference, as far as possible, to those patients whose
surroundings and conditions of life were such, that retention
in their homes would have been prejudicial to themselves or
to the community at large.
The Chairman discusses the question of additional
accommodation for fever and diphtheria patients,in connection
with a report of the General Purposes Committee, to which
I referred in my first monthly report for the current year, and
which I have summarised at page 107. He estimates that
* Vide page 32.