Second report from the Select Committee of the House of Lords on Metropolitan Hospitals, &c. : together with the Proceedings of the Committee, minutes of evidence, and appendix / Ordered, by the House of Commons, to be printed, 5 August 1891.
- House of Lords
- Date:
- 1891
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Second report from the Select Committee of the House of Lords on Metropolitan Hospitals, &c. : together with the Proceedings of the Committee, minutes of evidence, and appendix / Ordered, by the House of Commons, to be printed, 5 August 1891. 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.
27/956 (page 9)
![26 January 1891.] Mr. LuSHlNGTON. \ Continued. Chairman—continued. accounts of the hospital?—We keep a separate account, but it is included in the balance of the income of the hospital. We charge a guinea a week for each lady pupil, and we have got 20 of them now, I think ; so that you see it, produces a pretty good sum in the year. The rooms are all full. 9906. In addition to your hospital nurses, I think Dr. Steele has told us that you have what is called an institution for nurses?—Yes. 9907. Something like the institutions for private nurses ?—Yes. 9908. Is there any possibility of your hospital nursing suffering because of the withdrawal of nurses for the purposes of this institution?—None whatever. 9909. Supposing there was a chance of sending one of your nurses out, and you had not got one in the institution available, should you ever send into the hospital for one to go out ?—I do not say that has not been done; it may have been done, but I think very rarely. If we have no nurses to send out, when an application comes, we tell them we have nobody to send. 9910. It is not your practice to take them out of the wards?—No, certainly not. 9911. How long do you train your nurses before you allow them to go to the institution ?—Never for less than 18 months; and we pay the whole expenses of their training at the hospital from the funds of the institution, from the profits arising from our private nursing institution. I have always 12 nurses in training for our insti- tution in the hospital, whose services are placed at the disposal of the matron as long as they remain in the hospital, and we pay for their keep ; we pay about 400 /. a year from the profits of the institution to the hospital ; so that the hospital has a clear gain of 12 nurses outside the nursing staff’ of the hospital to make use of for such purposes as they see fit. 9912. Then it frequently happens in a hospital that cases occur which require special assistance, and then are what are termed special nurses provided for them?—Yes. 9913. Have you got any such special nurses ?— We have always a few extra, about six or seven ; and then we have got the probationers if they are sufficiently competent; and if there should happen to be an institution nurse who is doing nothing at the time, I think the matron would ask for the loan of her, and we should be glad to send her. 9914. But still that nursing institution has its own separate funds?—Entirely separate. 9915. Then would the hospital credit the insti- tution with the value of that nurse’s services ?— We have done so for three years; but last year we found our institution so flourishing that we said, “ You shall have your nurses for nothing, and we will not charge you anything.” 9916. Have you ever had to go outside for nurses ?—Never. 9917. You have always had enough to satisfy the demand ?—Yes. Supposing the surgeon wishes to perform some delicate or difficult opera- tion, ovariotomy, for instance, and he wants two special nurses to attend that case, the matron mav sav to him, “ I am sorry I cannot let vou (24.)' Chairman—continued. have these two special nurses for to-morrow or Tuesday, but if you will put it off for two or three days I shall then be able to provide for you ; ” so that we never go outside for a nurse. 9918. Do your nurses, institute nurses and all, have any leave during the year?—Yes ; I think our institute nurses get three weeks’ leave in the year, and our hospital nurses get a fort- night’s leave in the year. 9919. What do the nurses do ; merely nursing, or do they also engage in what are known as menial occupations ?—They engage in no menial occupations whatever. 9920. Who does that sort of work ?—We have a set of ward maids. The probationers are re- quired to clean the lockers that are by the bed- side ; that is the only menial occupation they have to perforin. The fact is our nurses would not be strong enough to perform the rough menial work that used to be done in the wards by nurses 20 years ago; they are a different class of women. Earl Cathcart. 9921. I think Dr. Steele told us that the con- duct of the medical students, as a rule, was ex- cellent ?—So it is. 9922. And that he did not remember any case of expulsion of any kind ?—I am afraid I could not quite endorse that, and say that I have never known any case of expulsion, because such a thing has happened. 9923. I am speaking from memory only, but I think Dr. Steele said that at the moment he did not recall any case of expulsion ?—You see this matter would not come before Dr. Steele. Supposing that by any chance a student was found stealing somebody’s microscope, or books, or something of that kind, that would not come before Dr. Steele; he would know nothing about it. 9924. But as a rule the conduct of the medical students is good?—Excellent. 9925. The 1,400 acres of laud you have on hand must cost you a great deal of money ?—• That it does, but I am happy to say that we are not entirely out of pocket by it. I think that last year, when we made up our accounts, after debiting ourselves with interest for the capital and charging a small amount to rent, we still had a little over. 9926. There has been a good deal of complaint in the newspapers lately with regard to your hospital, has there not ?—Not very lately ; there was some years ago. 9927. But not latel} ?—Not lately. I did see something, but I really forget what it was about. 9928. Have you paying patients?—Yes, we have. 9929. Are a great many beds occupied by paying patients?—No; we have one ward set apart for three-guinea patients ; each patient occupies a cubical, and a resident physician or resident general practitioner is in charge, and if the patient is not satisfied with this general practitioner, he or she may call in any medical man that they desire. If they are too poor, which is very often the case, to have a very first- B class](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28040156_0029.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
