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25
MOGDEN HOSPITAL.
The following extract is taken from the Annual Eeport for 1903, and
is again inserted here to call attention of the Council to this important
matter:—
"I am anxious to call the attention of the Council to the urgent
necessity of increasing the accommodation provided at the Hospital for the
reception of Scarlet Fever patients. This is not a new matter. It has
been before the Joint Committee for many months; it has been discussed
by the Richmond Corporation and the Heston and Isleworth Council, and
nobody has even suggested that the necessity does not exist. Plans for
the enlargement have been prepared, and the Medical Staff has repeatedly
called attention to the danger of delay in carrying them out, and yet at
end of the year no practical step has been taken towards providing more
beds. I am aware that the Heston and Isleworth Council is prepared to
carry out its duty in the matter, and that the delay has been chiefly
caused by a difference of opinion between the constituent authorities as to
their relative financial responsibility, and the desire of the Richmond
Corporation to alter the terms of the agreement entered into when the
two districts joined together for Isolation Hospital purposes. It is not my
business to hold any opinion regarding the questions at issue between the
Authorities. It seems to me that as the arrangement exists, and the Hospital
is for the joint benefit of the two districts, they must be considered as one
in connection with those diseases which are admitted for treatment, and
the total population of both must be taken into account in considering the
number of beds that must be provided. The difficulty in connection with
Mogden is the more surprising to me, inasmuch as it never arose when
I requested that additional accommodation should be provided at Dockwell
in 1902, The two Hospitals are maintained under exactly the same agreement,
but the question of relative cost was not considered when a new building
was erected at the latter for Small-pox cases. The necessity at Mogden is
far more urgent than was the case at Dockwell.
Dr. Crocker, the Medical Officer of Health for Richmond, and Visiting
Physician to the Hospital, reported on the need for increased accommodation
in March, 1903, and called attention to the requirements of the Local Government
Board, as to the provision of 2000 cubic feet of air space for each
patient. In a further Report to the Joint Committee, dated November 23rd,