The medical charities of Birmingham : being letters on hospital management and administration / by Scrutator.
- Scrutator
- Date:
- 1863
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The medical charities of Birmingham : being letters on hospital management and administration / by Scrutator. 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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![Why is this institution the only one in Great Britain of a similar kind without a physician ] Why is there no published medical report 1 Why was it necessary to spend £1,300 in building two new wings of suitable proportions when the establishment was crippled by debt 1 Why have the public had so small a share in the election of its medical oflBcers 1 The system of this Hospital is rapidly leading to total failure; and this failure can only be averted by a radical change in the principles of its organisation. If the in-patients are increased, the managers will act in defiance of the plain dictates of conscience and of the universally received truths of medical science. If their number remain as at present, and the staff and general expenses continue the same, they will act in defiance of the very rudiments of successful financial administration. There is yet time, however, for the institution to be made worthy of the town and fully adequate to its manifest requirements. Let no case of labour be admitted into the wards. Let six beds be kept up for the treatment of surgical ailments consequent on pregnancy or subsequent to labour. Let four gentlemen be appointed, one for each quarter of the town, and resident in such quarter, to attend cases within his district, and let him receive a small fee on every case he attends. Two honorary ofl[icers will amply suffice for the instruction of nurses and midwives, and for attending all cases of severity or danger. The charity could be then worked with far greater efficiency than at present, and at half the cost, and it would rapidly gain the confidence of the public. If, however, the institution continues its present course, I will ven- ture to predict what will inevitably ensue. Some able surgeon will establish a charity, absolutely restricted to lying-in women and their special diseases. He will take two rooms in a central part of the town, and appoint a dispenser, who will be also secretary. On certain days of the week out-patients will apply here for the purpose of being seen and prescribed for by the chief surgeon. Two gentlemen will be advertised for to attend lying-in women at their own houses, and these gentlemen will receive the salary demanded by the state of the medical market. One of them will be placed in the middle of Broad Street, the other at the lower extremity of Dale End. They will be made responsible for the due management of all cases short of serious operation, when the honorary surgeon will be sent for. On this plan, as many lying-in women, and twice as many sick cases as in the Broad Street Hospital, could be attended with every needful libe- rality for about £400 a year. But the work of such a charity would soon commend itself to the benevolent. Money would be forthcoming, as it always is to well- ordered institutions, and large sums would be placed to its credit. Then the chief surgeon would say, Let us have a building, a staff, something to look at. It is so dignified to visit patients in wards, and see one's name printed in large letters at the bed-head. This would be the crisis in the fortunes of the charity. If the surgeon has his way the institution hastens to ruin. If,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22299488_0056.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
