Observations of the Medical Officer of Health [E.W. Hope] upon the report of Dr. R.J. Reece to the Local Government Board on smallpox and smallpox hospitals at Liverpool, 1902-3.

  • Hope, E. W. (Edward William), 1855-1950.
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Observations of the Medical Officer of Health [E.W. Hope] upon the report of Dr. R.J. Reece to the Local Government Board on smallpox and smallpox hospitals at Liverpool, 1902-3. 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.

    16/48 (page 14)
    In 1898 the site wns visited one of the Board’s most experienced Ins}jectois, and received his warm approval. Subsequently to that a further purchase of a small piece of adjoining land brought another Fiispector of eipial experience and standing to the site, and he also approved it. Finally, upon a third apjilication for money for hospital |)urposes lieing made to the Board, a third Tnsjiector visited the site and had nothing to say against it. It will be seen, thei'efoi'e. that this site was the best which money conld procure, and which foresight could suggest. It is, of course, possible that the Inspectors of the Local Government Board, as well as the medical advisers of the Gorpoi ation, were wrong, and that Dr. Ifeece alone is right; but it cannot lie exjiected that his allegations will be acce])ted unless they )-est u})on a surer basis than that of preconceived opinion, noi' until some evidence is brought forward in their support. Obviously, if a site so chosen, and at so gi-eat a cost, is as unfit as Dr. lleece alleges it to be, there can be but few sites available in the kingdom, for veiy few public bodies would be in the position to pay so large a sum foi' a, site at all. According to Dr. Beece’s table, on ])age 14 of his lieport, the house invasion within the quarter to half mile zone of the Fazakerley Hospital has been more than three times as great, relative to the City invasion, as it was in the quarter to half mile zone at Ihiory Boad Hospital, while the half to three-quarter mile zone at Fazakerley shows a house invasion sixteen times as great, relative to the City invasion, as in the corresponding zone of the Ihiory Bead Hospital, while in the three-quarter to one mile zone it is ten times as great. Therefore whatevei' condemnation may be implied in regard to Brioiy Boad Hospital, that condemnation is infinitely stronger in regard to the Fazakerley Hospital. Moreover, Fazakerley Hospital shares the general condemnation that “ the influence of these hospitals has been responsible in material degree for the considerable and sustained prevalence of smallpox in Liverpool in 190;2-3,” and it is also singled out by the exju'ession “ it is noteworthy that at the time when smallpox had ceased to occur in the other hospital areas, such smallpox as Liverpool continued to suffer was to be found mainly in the neighbourhood of Fazakerley Hos])ital.”'^ The circumstances of the Netherfield Road Hospital. D]'. Beece’s conclusions are based on the allegation that in certain hospitals there has been a gi'aduated incidence of invasion of houses in the various zones, the incidence being highest in the zones nearest the hospital. The imjjlication, in other words, is that if the hospital had not been whei'e it is, the houses would not have been invaded. But if this method is applied to a hospital which had no small])Ox in it, precisely the same result is obtained. This has been done in the case of the Netherfield Boad Hospital, the situation of which is now shown on the map, and concentilc I'ings in blue at quartei-mile distances ai’e made round it. The j)i‘oj)ortion of house-invasion, and the gradation of such house- invasion in the various zones, are such that if taken alone, as Dr. '= Wliile this Report is passing through the press, the President of the Local Government Hoard has, in answer to inquiries addressed to him in the House of Commons, stated that Dr. Reece has not condemned the Fazakerley Hospital, and that the Medical Officer of the Local Government Board h,as not expressed any opinion in explanation of the facts recorded hy Dr. Reece.