View report page

43
Letters may be sent to patients as often as desired and should
be addressed to the patients direct. Letters from patients will
be collected twice weekly and after the necessary disinfection will
be despatched. Matron will always convey messages of urgency.
All letters making enquiries should state the full name of the
patient and should be addressed to the Matron. Enquiries may
also be made by telephoning the Hospital between the hours of
9 and 10 a.m. It is particularly requested that frequent telephone
inquiries be not made except in the case of those who are seriously
ill. as such enquiries interfere considerably with the work of the
staff.
Flowers, plants, books, and toys may be sent to the patients,
but cannot afterwards be returned.
No eatables may be sent except fresh fruit, plain chocolate,
plain biscuits and fresh eggs. Any of these articles will not
necessarily be for the sole use of the patient for whom they are
sent.
Patients are discharged as soon as the Medical Superintendent
thinks safe. The Matron will notify the parents of the day and
time a patient is ready to leave, when a fresh supply of clothes
must be brought.
The following are the major expenditures incurred at the two
institutions during the year:—At the Rayners Lane Hospital:
External decoration of the hospital wards; internal and external
decoration of the administrative block; decoration of the porter's
lodge; the repair of fence; conversion of the laundry block into
nurses' quarters. At Honeypot Lane Hospital: External decoration
of the hospital wards; external and some internal decoration of the
administrative block; the equipment of the laundry; the installation
of a water softening plant.
ADEQUACY OF ACCOMMODATION.
In the early months of the year the demand on scarlet fever
beds could not be met by admission to the local institutions, so
cases were sent to the hospitals of other authorities and for a short
time, owing to the simultaneous occurrence of a number of cases
of diphtheria, similar arrangements were made for admission of
patients suffering from this disease. Owing to the absence of
cubicle accommodation it is necessary that all cases of double
infection be treated elsewhere. For such reasons, arrangements
were made for the admission to outside hospitals of some 100 cases
suffering from infectious disease.
PROVISION OF NEW ISOLATION HOSPITAL.
Following the proposals of the County Council as a result of
the survey required to be made under Section 63 of the Local
Government Act, 1929, the Minister of Health suggested that the
Harrow Urban District and the Hendon Borough form one area