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14
3. General Hospitals.
(a) Harrow Hospital.
This hospital with a pre-war complement of 79 beds was extended
during the war by the Emergency Medical Service accommodation and
to-day has 125 beds.
In regard to the future of the small general hospital, the GrayTopping
Survey of the Hospital Service of London and the Surrounding
Area stressed the distinction between the cottage hospital and the district
hospital. In a report on the Post War Hospital Problems of the King's
Fund it is said" the most critical stage in the development of the
voluntary general hospital is the transition from the small local cottage
hospital of some 20-60 beds to the general hospital of 100-200 beds and
upwards. ... It is increasingly coming to be recognised that efficiency
demands a bed complement somewhere in the neighbourhood of 150. . . .
In hospitals suitably staffed and equipped to deal with all the commoner
specialities as well as general, medical and surgical cases, it is apparent
that the number of beds needed may well reach 250 or more, especially
if separate pay-bed accommodation and a maternity unit are included."
The following out-patient services are provided at the hospital:—
medical, surgical, diseases of women and children, ear, nose and throat,
skin, orthopaedic, fracture, varicose veins, neurology and radio-diagnostic.
In addition, physio-therapy is provided at the clinic at 76, Marlborough
Hill.
(b) Redhill County Hospital.
This hospital on the Edgware Road, the district boundary, is the
nearest and most used by local inhabitants of the County Hospitals.
The accommodation comprises 814 beds, including 60 maternity cots.
The following is a list of the out-patient sessions provided by this
hospital:—medical, surgical, children's, genito-urinary, ophthalmic, ear,
nose and throat, ante-natal, post-natal, diabetic, sterility, orthopaedic,
physio-therapeutic, psychiatric, dental, casualty, skin, varicose veins and
haemorrhoids.
Associated with this hospital is the Bushey Heath Maternity Home
with its 40 beds for the reception of straightforward maternity cases.
(c) Northwood, Pinner and District Hospital.
A hospital of 36 beds, just over the district boundary, and which
draws its patients from the Hatch End and Pinner part of the district.
The following out-patient sessions are held:—general, gynaecological, ear,
nose and throat, orthopaedic and X-ray.
(d) Stanmore Cottage Hospital.
An institution of 9 beds, admitting patients referred by a restricted
number of local medical practitioners.
(e) Stanmore Orthopaedic Hospital.
This is the country branch of the Royal National Orthopaedic
Hospital. During the war it was up-graded from its complement of
320 beds to an E.M.S. General Hospital of 550 beds. It will probably
revert to its specialist character.