London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Rotherhithe 1895
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Rotherhithe]
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increase of fever accommodation has been in progress, the Managers have had also to deal
with the demand for increased small-pox accommodation and increased imbecile accommodation.
For small-pox they have raised the permanent convalescent accommodation at Gore
Farm from 600 to 1,000 beds, and have purchased a site for a new acute hospital.
For imbeciles they have purchased a site at Tooting, on which a new Asylum Infirmary
is to be erected.
I trust that the facts which I have put together in this letter may be of some interest
and service to those Managers who, having comparatively recently joined the Board, may, at
present, not be thoroughly acquainted with them.
I am, dear Sir Edwin,
Your faithful Servant,
T. DUNCOMBE MANN,
Clerk to the Board.
To Sir E. H. Galsworthy, j.p., d.l.,
Chairman.
P.S.—I find that I inadvertently omitted to record in the above letter the actual numbers of admissions of patients to the Fever Hospitals for the three years 1892-3-4.
They are as follow :—
| Year. | Total number of cases admitted to Fever Hospitals. | Maximum number in Hospital at one time. |
|---|---|---|
| 1892 | 16,276 | 4,389 |
| 1893 | 18,674 | 3,558 |
| 1894 | 16,667 | 2,950 |
With regard to the third column, I should explain that in 1892 the proper normal
accommodation, including the new hospital erected at Tottenham, was only about 2,000, and
that it was in the belief that the emergency was a temporary one only, and owing to their
anxious desire not to refuse cases, that the Managers sanctioned a crowding which their