Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for West Ham Borough]
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"population, and the traffic of the town with other places, are the most impor"tant.
There is no fixed standard, therefore, by which the standing hospital
"requirements proper for a town can be measured. Furthermore, it is to be
"remembered that occasions will arise (as where infection is brought into several
"parts of a town at one time) when isolation provision, in excess of that
"commonly sufficient for the town, will become needful.
"For a town the hospital provision ought to consist of wards in one or
"more permanent buildings, with space enough for the erection of other wards,
"temporary or permanent. Considerations of ultimate economy make it wise
"to have permanent buildings sufficient for somewhat more than the average
"necessities of the place, so that recourse to temporary extensions may less
"often be necessary. In any case, it is well to make the administrative offices
"somewhat in excess of the wants of the permanent wards, because thus, at
"little additional first cost, they will be ready to serve, when occasion comes,
"for the wants of temporary extensions.
"Plans illustrating the sanitary requirements of small hospitals for
"infectious disease are arranged on three sheets accompanying the present
"memorandum. Plan A, on the first sheet, is that of a little building to hold
"two patients of each sex. On the second sheet a plan and a section (B) of a
"rather larger hospital building are shown, providing for eight patients, with
"separation of sex, and also of one infectious disease from another. A con"venient
disposition of buildings upon site is also indicated on the same sheet.
"The third sheet shows a plan and section (C) of a small pavilion, adapted to
"receive six male and six female patients suffering under one kind of infectious
"disease. It will be found that in all the plans proper standards of space are
"observed, viz., not less than 2,000 cubic feet of air space, than 144 square feet
"of floor space, and 12 linear feet of wall space to each bed; and that means
"are provided for the adequate ventilation and warming of wards, and for
"securing them from closet emanations and the like. In plan A, earth-closets,
"in other plans water-closets, are indicated as the means of excrement disposal.
"The latter are to be regarded as preferable where efficient sewers are available.
"Places for washing and disinfection, and for a mortuary, are indicated. It
"will be observed that an interval of 40 feet is everywhere interposed between
"every building used for the reception of infected persons or things and the