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112
Cost.—The cost has worked out as follows (provisional figures
only):—Land, £5,213; Building, £24,842; Equipment, £4,015;
Total, £34,070.
On the basis of forty beds the total cost amounts to £852 per
bed. Actually, one of the single bed wards on the ground floor is
used as a Sister's room because owing to its proximity to the
heating chamber it is unsuitable for patients.
The loan charges amount to £2,573 3s.. Od. per annum.
Equipment.—Reference must be made to the fact that the oldfashioned
bed-pan sluices have been entirely discarded in the
equipment of the Home and instead three steam bed-pan washers
have been provided on each floor.
After much preliminary investigation it was decided to try
two types, and although both types proved bacteriologically efficient
with regard to sterilisation, one type proved much more satisfactory
in practice. Before the Home was opened stringent bacteriological
tests were carried out and which proved that streptococci,
staphylococci and even B.Coli communis were killed by two minutes'
exposure to steam at 71bs pressure. The use of these bed-pan
washers has been an unqualified success and represents only one of
the many measures which have been used to cut out the risk of
sepsis.
Staffing—(a) Nursing and Domestic.—Within a short period
of the opening it was obvious that the Home had established a good
reputation in the town and the chief credit for this must be given
to the Matron, Miss F. Bambridge, and her staff.
Miss Bambridge assumed duty on 1st January, 1934, in ample
time to bear the brunt of the work of equipping the Home in conjunction
with Mr. A. Whitehead, your Council's Buyer.
At the end of the year the staff consisted of the following:—
Matron, Senior Sister, 4 Sisters (including 1 District Sister), 4
Staff Nurses, 4 Probationers; Total, 14. Clerk, cook, 6 maids,
2 laundresses, 3 stokers (plus half-time relief) and 1 gardener.
The daily average number of patients in the Home in December,
1934, was 23.2. It has been found that the smaller ward units and
the rather long corridors have made it necessary to staff the Home
to a greater degree than is usual in maternity hospitals with larger
wards.