On the mortality of London hospitals : and incidentally on the deaths in the prisons and public institutions of the metropolis / by William A. Guy.

  • Guy, William A. (William Augustus), 1810-1885.
Date:
[1867]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the mortality of London hospitals : and incidentally on the deaths in the prisons and public institutions of the metropolis / by William A. Guy. 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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    general wards of Guy’s 3,963 admissions and 468 deaths ; the death- rate in the one hospital rising from ill to 128 per 1,000, in the other from 96 to 118. Thus, in consequence of the larger number and lower mortality of cases admitted into the special wards of Guy’s Hospital, the death-rates of the two hospitals approach more closely when the cases and deaths in the sjieeial wards are deducted. We have next to inquire to what extent the death-rates of the two hospitals will he modified, if we assume 500 males and 500 females to have been admitted into each of them, and to have been subject to its own special rates of mortality. Now, in the year 1864, the 5,543 patients of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital consisted of 3,184 males and 2,359 females, while the 4,989 patients of Guy’s Hospital consisted of 3,009 males and 1,980 females. The deaths, in the one case, amounted to 398 males and 219 females ; in the other to 316 males and 164 females. The death-rate for St. Bartholo- mew’s was 125 for males and 93 for females ; and for Guy’s 105 for males and 83 for females: and a population of 500 males and 500 females would, therefore, suffer a mortality of 109 at Bartholo- mew’s and 94 at Guy’s. By this adjustment, then, the gross death- rate of St. Bartholomew’s falls from 111 to 109 per 1,000 ; of Guy’s from 96 to 94 per 1,000. Our last inquiry relates to the modifying influence of medical and surgical cases. Now, in the year 1864, the 5,543 patients of St. Bartholomew’s consisted of 2,043 medical, and 3,500 surgical, cases; while the 4,989 patients of Guy’s Hospital consisted of 1,921 medical, and 3,068 surgical, patients. 401 medical patients and 2x6 surgical died at St. Bartholomew’s ; 290 medical, and 190 surgical, patients at Guy’s. The death-rate of medical cases was 196 per 1,000 at St. Bartholomew’s, and 151 per 1,000 at Guy’s; the surgical death-rate 62 per 1,000 in both hospitals. If now we assume a like population of 500 medical, and 500 surgical, patients to have been admitted, in 1864, into both hospitals, the one (St Bartholomew’s) would have a death-rate of 129, the other (Guy’s) a death-rate of 107 per i ,000. By this adjustment, then, the rate of mortality rises at St. Bartholomew’s from iii to 129 per 1,000; at Guy’s from 96 to 107 per 1,000. The figures of the original mortality of the two hospitals, and of their mortality as modified by abstraction of special wards, by equalisation of males and females, and of medical and surgical cases, are brought together in the following table.