An account of the condition of the infirmaries of London workhouses / [Ernest Hart].

  • Ernest Abraham Hart
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An account of the condition of the infirmaries of London workhouses / [Ernest Hart]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    for the sick and infirm: at Greenwich, out of 1,000 in¬ mates, only 100 were able to dine in the hall Thus the traditions of the past are no longer suitable as guides for the present authorities, nor could any course be more costly m the end than a reckless parsimony. Not to speak for the moment of any humane motives, the negligence or the in¬ efficiency, whether of construction or management, which prolongs the sickness, aggravates the consecutive disable¬ ment, or costs the life of a patient, has its own direct money cost, which in the first case is often to be multiplied by the progressive expenditure which is entailed on the rates for years by a disabled bread-winner and an unprovided family. If the parishes would combine, many of the worst infirmary buildings might at once be disused, and such buildings as are well fitted might be employed as receptacles for several of the parishes. Elsewhere three or four might unite to provide fitting hospitals. Those of Fulham, Kensington, Marylebone (if rebuilt), Paddington, St. Pancras, Stepney, Bichmond, the out hospital of St. George?s, Newington, Wandsworth, City of London, Mile End Old Town, Bethnal Green, Hackney, belong to the latter list. In these amalga¬ mated hospitals something like a true hospital system should be introduced; the duties and remunerations of the visiting officers of the unions should be fairly apportioned • resident officers and dispensers must of necessity be employed; the staff of nurses be weeded and reorganised; a small staff of consulting officers be appointed, and a proper system of inspection inaugurated. In the last report of the Poor-law Board reference is made to the functions of the visiting’ committees by law provided at each infirmary, and the regu¬ lations laid down for them. In this connection it is important theietore to note that in houses where the most gross mis¬ management and excessive abuses have been discovered by medical inspectors in a few hours, the visiting committees have been most regular in their attendance and systematic in their reports. The fact is, that the material of which
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