Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the hospitals of Dublin : with appendices / presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Marjesty.

Ireland. Dublin Hospitals' Commission.

Date:: 1856

Credit: Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the hospitals of Dublin : with appendices / presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Marjesty. 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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$mic fever was very severe in Dublin, wooden sheds were pitched within the grounds of this hos]ntal for the accommodation of 200 fever patients, who., as they became convales- cent, were moved into the unoccupied wards of the hospital itself, which wards contained thirty-six beds. It must be presumed that these wards were empty for want of funds, and that the then managers thought it a fitting opportunity to obtain a further Government grant, by giving up to the public, for a consideration, these unoccupied beds. That such was the case, is shown by the following extract of a letter from the Chief Secretary (Right Honourable William Lamb, afterwards Viscount Melbourne), in which he refers to an applica- tion from the managers of the Meath Hospital and County of Dublin Infirmary, through their secretary, to the Lord Lieutenant, suggesting, by their directions, that thirty-six beds be retained in the Meath Hospital for the accommodation of persons affected with fever, the probable annual expense of which is estimated at £551 145. Ad. And the letter goes on to state, that with his Excellency's approbation, ... these thirty- six beds are to be placed at the disposal of his Excellency, to be occupied in such manner as may appear best adapted to prevent the spreading of fever in Dublin; and that no charge shall be made except for these beds, which shall be occupied by fever patients, as the sum to he granted is to be applied exclusively to the support of these patients. * * * The arrangement is to commence on the 5th January next, 1828. October 29, 1827. William Lamb. The Eotunda Hospital, for the relief of poor lying-in women in the city of Dublin, the Cork-street Fever Hospital and House of Recovery, and Steevens' Hospital, form a class not receiving either county or city presentment, but having grants of various amount from Parliament: thus the Rotunda had £600, Steevens'£1.050, and Cork-street £2,660, in addition to their income, part of which is derived from landed and funded property, and part from some peculiar payments made to each hospital. Thus the Rotunda receives fees from female pupils, and also from jiatients ; the Cork-street from the Guardians of the South Dublin Union, who send in a large number of fevered paupers at Is. 6rf. each a day; and Steevens' derives about one-fourth of its zt/Zio/e income from Government, as payment for the support and medical treatment, at \s. 2d. a-head daily, of the constabulary who are sent up from all parts of the kingdom to tliat institution. Many of these constabulary cases are venereal, and occasionally they are fever cases; but neither for one or other are there particular wards, but the cases are placed where beds chance to be vacant; and there is no record of any spread of fever through the constahidary wards, or, indeed, in either of the other medical wards, although the cases of fever that chance to be admitted are neces- sarily distributed among the other patients, as there are not any special fever wards. The House of Industry Hospitals, to wit, the Whitworth, Hardwicke, and Richmond, to which must be added the Lunatic establishment (as, owing to the mode in which the accounts have been long kept, it is stated to be impossible to separate the annual expenses of each establishment from tlie other), form a class differing from all the other Dublin hospitals, in being, with the exception of the small annual sum of £136 5.v. lOrf. from bequests, supported entirely by Parliament at a cost of about £10..000 a-year, and hitherto under the entire control of the Poor Law Commissioners. The Lock Hospital, like so many other hospitals in Dublin, owes its foundation to the sole efforts of a medical man, Surgeon Doyle, in 1755 ; and, after various removals, found itself occupying the Bucldngliam Hospital, on Donnybrook road, but in 1792 exchanged with the Hospital for Incurables, for their house in Westmoreland-street, which it now occupies, the Government having in that year determined to establish a venereal hospital, to contain 300 beds, and to be called after the then Lord Lieutenant, the Westmoreland Lock Hospital. The government of the establishment was in a Board of five physicians and nine surgeons: and the medical staff consisted of two attending physicians and ten attending surgeons, five of the latter to attend for two months in rotation, all the patients being divided among them, and assisted by ten public dressers, who were changed half-yearly. These appointments were witliout fee or reward ; but an experience of four years showed this did not work satisfactorily, and the governing Board therefore memo- rialized the Lord Lieutenant (Lord Camden), who appointed, in consequence, two senior surgeons, with salaries. The provision made by Government was, from the first, exceed- ingly liberal; the expenditure ifrom November, 1792, to March, 1795, was £5,720 135. Q\d.; but from that time to 1802 it had increased, varying between £3,891 18s. 2d. and £6,311 105. Aid.; by the year 1805 it had reached i;7,lll, and in 1808 had mounted up to £9,019- From this time the expenditure, which had been defrayed by Parhament, began to be watched more narrowly, and in 1823 had been reduced to £2,606, and in 1853 was at its lowest, £1,250. The result of the favouritism bestowed on this hospital was unsatisfactory in the extreme, as shown by the Reports of the Commissions which again and again have had to inquire into the condition of the Dublin Hospitals. Up to 1821 the hospital received constantly 100 male and 150 female patients, and medical stu- dents were allowed to attend its practice; so that, according to the memorial presented by the Board of Management to Lord Camden in 1796, every surgical student in Dublin might have an adequate opportunity of becoming acquainted with the most approved treatment of the venereal disease. In that year (1821) the male wards were shut up, and only 150 women received, and the medical pupils forbidden attending the hospital practice any longer—a proliibition continued till the present time, and aflaxing a slur upon the cha- racter of the Dublin medical students, which it seems surprising their teachers should not have taken pains to remove by insisting on the needfulness of their seeing the venereal disease in both sexes, which, under proper management of patients and pupils, might be as$