On the mortality of London hospitals : and incidentally on the deaths in the prisons and public institutions of the metropolis / by William A. Guy.

  • William Augustus Guy
Date:
[1867]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the mortality of London hospitals : and incidentally on the deaths in the prisons and public institutions of the metropolis / by William A. Guy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    to causes which determine the nature and severity of the cases admitted within their walls. I must dwell for a short time on these statements of fact and opinion. As illustration of the fact, take the returns for 1861 from the three hospitals which border one great line of thoroughfare from east to west—London and St. George’s at the two extremities, Charing Cross in the interval—the first two of large size and in open situations, the last comparatively small, and joined to neighbouring buildings: London Hospital largely supplied with surgical cases from the docks and river, the other two more sparingly supplied with this class of cases : London Hospital contrasting strongly with St. George’s, and in a less degree with Charing Cross, in the character of the surrounding population. And yet, in 1861, the death-rate of the three hospitals, taken in order from east to west, is 84, 83, and 83 per 1,000! As a second illustration, take the two large, richly endowed hospitals of St. Bartholomew’s and Guy’s, and the two smaller unendowed hospitals. University and King’s, with' so many contrasts of site, structure, and arrangement, external and internal; and yet, after a necessary correction for special wards, a rate of mortality (for the same year, 1861), approximating as the numbers no, 112, 113, 115 in the 1,000, for King’s, Bartholomew’s, Guy’s, and University respectively ! As giving some countenance to the opinion just expressed, take again these last figures (ranging from no to 115 in the 1,000), as the death-rates of the four hospitals having the largest medical schools, and, therefore, the greatest motives and aids to the supply of severe cases, and compare them with the figures first named (ranging from 83 to 84 per 1,000), as belonging to a class of smaller medical schools ; or, as more convincing still, take the death-rate of 80 per 1,000 prevailing, during the five years 1840-44, in the recently established, old, dilapidated King’s College Hospital, com- pared with the greatly augmented rate of 109 per 1,000 for the five years 1857-61, in the new and spacious hospital built on the same site, opened out by the removal of some very offensive nuisances, with greatly improved nursing arrangements, and medical staff little changed ; but with all the motives and aids to the multiplica- tion of severe cases augmenting with the lapse of time. From this brief reference to my paper of 1862, based on the figures of the previous year, I pass to the five years 1861-65, and inquire, first, whether the coincidence of equal, or nearly equal, figures with unequal and dissimilar conditions, displays itself also in the last four years of the series. The answer is in the affirmative : for, in 1862, Guy’s and St. Mary’s have the same death-rate of 96 in the 1,000, while Westminster and King’s differ only as the
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