Thirty-fifth annual report of the trustees of the State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester. October, 1867.

  • State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Thirty-fifth annual report of the trustees of the State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester. October, 1867. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    variety in these respects would, no doubt, be highly beneficial to many within our walls. A little comparison of the price of board paid by the Common¬ wealth to this hospital, with that paid to similar establishments in other States, for the same class of patients, in places where the cost of living is as cheap as in Worcester, and even cheaper, will show that our request for additional compensation is most reasonable. The price of board paid to this hospital by the State and towns, is $3.50 a week. In the New Hampshire Asylum for the Insane at Concord, the minimum charge for board has been $4.75 the past year. At the Butler Hospital for the Insane at Providence, R. I., the charge for paupers sent by towns is $4.00. At the Retreat for the Insane in Hartford, Connecticut, the lowest charge at the present time is $5.50, and that only for State and other strictly indigent patients. In the New York State Hospital at Utica, the ordinary charge for board is $4.00 a week. In the New Jersey State Asylum at Trenton, the charge for pauper and indigent patients is $4.00, of which $3.00 is paid by the counties from which they are sent, and $1.00 by the State treasury. The salaries of resident officers are also paid by the State. In the Pennsylvania State Lunatic Hospital at Harrisburg, $3.00 a week is charged for patients supported by counties and towns. This is not, however, because this sum covers the expenses, but as a matter of policy, for private patients, who are poor, pay at the same rate, but the legislature always make an appropriation to cover the deficiency of the receipts. The prices of the most expensive supplies at this institution are also far lower than at Worcester. Coal, delivered at the hospital wharf, was $3.90 a ton (which we suppose was 2,240 pounds.) The contract for beef, from March 1, 1867, to March 1, 1868, was nine cents a pound, pork twelve cents, mutton and veal nine cents. At the Western Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane at Dixmont, near Pittsburg, the price paid for board during the past year by those sent by order of court, or by directors of poor, was $3.00 a week. The Superintendent writes: “ The State treasury pays to the institution $15,000, a sum
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