Hospital expenditure in London and the provinces : being an analysis of the working expenses of forty-six London and provincial hospitals for the year 1868 : with a short commentary presented to the Weekly Board of Governors of St. Mary's Hospital, on the 21st of January, 1870 / by Jos. G. Wilkinson.

St. Mary's Hospital. London.

Date:: 1870

Credit: Hospital expenditure in London and the provinces : being an analysis of the working expenses of forty-six London and provincial hospitals for the year 1868 : with a short commentary presented to the Weekly Board of Governors of St. Mary's Hospital, on the 21st of January, 1870 / by Jos. G. Wilkinson. 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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of each occupied bed in the following Hospitals for the latter year being as follows :— St. George's £56 18 9 St. Mary's 57 11 1 St. Bartholomew's , . , 58 0 4 London 58 13 8 King's College .... 59 6 4 Charing Cross .... 59 14 9 When we consider that economy, as far as practicable, is exercised by most of our governing bodies, and find that six of the London Hospitals are worked so closely as these figures show, it may, I think, be almost inferred that under present circumstances, a bed in a Metropolitan Hospital can hardly be main- tained at a less cost than about £58, some slight vari- ation being naturally due to a difference in arrange- ment, and other local causes. It is true that we find the beds at the Westminster Hospital do not cost quite £40, and at Guy's they are maintained for less than £48, while at University College Hospital £77 is required for the maintenance of each bed. Such variations as these, I confess are somewhat puzzling, and are not easily explained, even by a reference to the different items of which the total cost of each institution is composed. The average cost of each in-patient treated in our London Hospitals, bears a very unequal proportion to that of the beds, and is of course due to the duration of the residence of the patients in the wards. At Guy's, where the beds are maintained for £47 18s. 7d., each in-patient costs £4 18s. 9d., while at St. Mary's, where the beds average £57 lis Id., the cost of each in-patient is only £4 /o. lid. Anyone acquainted with the working of the latter institution will not, I think, accuse the Medical Officers of discharging their patients too quickly; and the discrepancy must therefore, I suppose, be due to the greater proportion of chronic cases treated in the larger Hospital. The statistics of special Hospitals which I have been able to obtain, furnish fair specimens of the

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