PUBLIC HOSPITAL SYSTEM

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21686, 21 January 1936, Page 15

PUBLIC HOSPITAL SYSTEM

j . TO THE KMTOa OJ? THE PEES 9. ' Sir,—There have been discussions lately; as to our hospitals .and their methods of administration. With all our vaunted scientific advancement we do not seem to have advanced so very far. I have just been reading a copy of the "Lancet>" dated London, November 16, 1839. The same imperfection existed then as now. If you will permit I .willi.give, one or two extracts. "But we cannot admit that the hospital and dispensary system, at present in operation is calculated to meet the exigencies of the case. They, the hospitals, are imperfect institutions at the best, and are, in every respect very inadequate substitutes for attendance upon the sick poor at their own houses. Instead, of sinking immense sums of money in building more hospitals, would it not be better to improve the buildings of the poor, and to provide them with the means of warmth, ventilation, and cleanliness at home. Instead of placing them at the mercy of nurses and strangers, would it not be more humane to provide the wife with the means of watching over her children, or her. sick husband? Instead of electing three or four officers to walk with great ceremony, or to hurry with indecent haste through the wards upon one or two days of the week, would it not be wiser to expend the funds of the medical charities in paying the neighbouring medical practitioners for assiduous attention? .. In the meantime it is our deliberate opinion that the medical profession and the public would be better employed in placing the hospitals, which are already in existence upon a satisfactory: footing, than in founding new establishments, infected with all the vices and imperfections of their predecessors." • The whole article is too long for reproduction here. We can see that years ago there was also some dissatisfaction with hospital methods and administration.—Yours, etc., PENSO; January 20, 1936.