Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Colonial hospitals and lunatic asylums. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
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![^3 being, carried into effect. At the hospital, two out of the three buildings for male patients are now in a generally satisfactory condition ; a much-needed system of drainage and sewerage, though delayed by the failure of the engineer, is at last in progress; and out-patients receive relief at the house, or if necessary at their homes. The new asylum also promises in a short time to be complete and efficient, and the two Institutions are at lengtli provided each with a separate medical staff, and both are subjected to a more complete system of visits and inspection, by the Governor, by an honorary board of inspectors, and by an officer whose especial business it is to scrutinize their sanitary and financial arrangements. But though many defects have been remedied much has yet to be done. At the hospital one male building remains unimproved and deficient in space and accommodation. The female building is still as unfit an adjunct to an institution of mercy as when it was characterized by the Commissioners as almost reversing every condition which ought to be observed under such circumstances. It remains disgracefully wanting in every sanitary and structural requirement. (Sec. 6, supra.) In addition to these deficiencies, both sides of the hospital are in- sufficiently supplied with hot baths. Two only of the nurses are resident; merely infirm paupers still crowd the wards—“ blind and paralytic, and utterly destitute persons, who sometimes remain for a long series of years.” One blind woman has been a resident for more than nineteen years. The only declared faults in the new asylum are the want of proper employ- ment and amusement for the insane, and of lavatories. Large grounds are being prepared, but in 1863 the only provision for the one, besides menial services, was a barrel organ; for the other, a basin in each ward. The only information given as to space is a statement that the gross internal measurement of the entire building gives 2,000 feet to each patient. Deducting walls, day rooms, servants’ rooms, surgeries, store-rooms, passages, stairs, &c., it is to be feared that the single cells must be much too small. Considering the attention which the Commissioners and the Governor have given to this subject, and their opportunities for acquiring information on the spot, it is improbable that anymore efficient scheme of reform which should be practicable can be invented at this distance, and ^vith very imperfect materials for forming a judgment. It is therefore suggested that the attention of the Legislature and of the board should be again directed to the necessity of remedying, as speedily as may be, the above-mentioned defects in the execution of the Commissioners’ recommendations, and, in addition, that their attention should be called to the measures described in paragraphs 50, 54, 55, and 56. A new set of rules for the administration of the hospital have recently been drawn up, amended by the board of visitors, the Executive Committee, and the Lieutenant-Governor, and finally approved by the Executive Committee. The rules had been the subject of adverse comment by Dr. Bowerbank, the original instigator of inquiry into the state of the hospital and asylum, and some of the amendments were made at his suggestion. He is still dissatisfied, but now' that the attention of the Legislature and the Lieutenant-Governor has been strongly draw'ii to the subject, it does not appear probable that there can be any ground for further action in the matter of rules and regulations. Nor, supposing Dr. Bowerbank’s views to be correct, do the points in which they have not been carried out appear to be of great importance. One only of his charges calls for remark. In his original dissent from the rules he said, “ I am cognizant of the fact that the majority of the officers, nurses, and servants at present attached to this Institution, strange to say, w’ere those employed under the old regime and who thus, as they did or could see nothing wrong in the management, are likely now to adhere to their old ways and practices if altered [allowed?].” The Governor having called on Mr. Trench, the Inspector and Director, for information on this point, it appeared that fourteen of the attendants in the hospital and asylum had been so employ ed, and further that five of them were proved by the evidence taken by the Committee to have been implicated in the former abuses. These five Mr. Trench was directed by the Governor to discharge without delay\ It also appears that one of the present medical officers had been attached to the hospital for the two years ending in March 1846, but no reflection is cast upon his character. It is to be added that the more recent despatches disclose nothing w'hich lessens the necessity for calling attention to the matters referred to above.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28038459_0023.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
