Report of the Royal Salop Infirmary : 1939.

  • Royal Salop Infirmary
Date:
1939
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Royal Salop Infirmary : 1939. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    There is very little work remaining to be done in the Casualty Department, and then the original scheme will be completed. During the year the new dispensary has been built, and the installation of equipment will be finished in the very near future. Another great step forward, however, has been taken by the establishment at this Hospital of a County Pathological Laboratory, an achievement which has been made possible by another generous contribution from the Trustees of the late Clement Walker. The desire to build and equip an efficient pathological laboratory at the Hospital has been under consideration for some considerable time, and was inspired at the beginning of last year by a resolution from the local branch of the British Medical Association, which declared their need for pathological facilities in this county, and which promised the support of all members of the medical profession if such a laboratory were erected. That inspiration led to successful negotiations with the Salop County Council, who have also now undertaken to send to the laboratory when it is erected, equipped, and staffed, all patho¬ logical and bacteriological work required by that Authority. Those factors, generously supported by the Walker Trustees, made the existence of a laboratory possible at the Hospital, and I am pleased to tell you that the building of it is now practically complete, and that its equipment will be installed in the very near future. Finally, on the question of Hospital policy generally, I have little more to add to what I have already said, except to comment upon our profound disappointment with the administration of the Emergency Hospital Scheme by the Ministry of Health, which has so far ignored the existence of the Voluntary Hospitals. There are conflicting opinions on this subject : there are those who subscribe to the wisdom of the Ministry in disturbing as little as possible the day-to-day responsibilities of the hospital system ; and there is another opinion, to which I ardently subscribe—that the facilities of the voluntary hospitals could have been used, and should have been used, in view of the great preparation we have all made to be of service to the State. You will remember in this Hospital, which is comparatively small when compared to the great teaching hospitals, that we were placed under emergency orders at the beginning of the war, and would then have been called upon to give assistance if any violent enemy action against the country had been encountered. We have added to our establishment sixty-seven beds supplied by the Ministry, which can be absorbed into the Hospital and serviced by all our other departments without any additional expense whatever to the State for extra equipment, and in addition we have with the help of our friends organised six hospital annexes in the County in order to give to the State the benefit of an additional 140 beds.
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