Isolation Hospitals Act, 1893 / special report by County Medical Officer.

  • Staffordshire (England). County Council
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Isolation Hospitals Act, 1893 / special report by County Medical Officer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/22 (page 15)
    such cases can generally be removed long distances without injury, and secondly, because past experience shows that the disease now only appears, in anything approaching epidemic form, at infrequent intervals. I may mention that this plan of grouping a series of towns for general isolation purposes, and including several of these groups in one large group for small-pox isolation, has actually been carried out in Lancashire under this Act. By way of illustration, let us suppose that all the North Staffordshire districts (urban and rural) are grouped together to form five areas, with five hospitals for general infectious cases, it might be quite possible to find a site for a small-pox hospital sufficiently central to serve all five areas, and thus a very great saving of cost would be effected. In this connection it may be well to point out as regards small-pox that, on economical grounds, considering the infre¬ quency of epidemics, it may not be necessary to provide many beds in a permanent building. If a good-sized permanent administrative block is provided, and certain adjoining areas are concreted for the erection, at any time when occasion may arise, of temporary buildings (tents or wood structures), a comparatively small number of beds in a permanent building would answer the purpose in the case of ordinary outbreaks, while an administrative block sufficient for serving a larger temporary extension would always be available. Suggested Policy. Granting then that the union of districts is desirable—on the ground both of economy and efficiency—it is probable that some difficulty will be experienced in effecting such union unless some inducement is offered in the shape of a sub¬ stantial contributions from the county funds. I am strongly of opinion that such help would be in¬ strumental, not only in hastening the provision of suitable buildings, but also in insuring their efficient administration. If the contributions took the form of annual grants, these might be conditional upon efficiency, both as regards buildings