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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    Table I. Year 18G4. Death-rate per 1,000. St. Bartholomew’s. Guy’s. Difference. Original figures Ill 96 15 Same after abstraction of special wards .... 128 I 18 10 500 males and <;oo females 109 94 15 500 medical and 500 surgical cases 129 107 22 The returns from the several hospitals (as published in our Journal), do not comprise any figures which Avould enable me to ascertain the modifying influence of age ; but as this is likely to be considerable, I have had recourse to the books of King’s College Hospital, and have abstracted the 1,500 cases which came first to hand, in the year 1804, as inmates of the general wards of the hospital. I have reduced them to the standard of 1,000, distin- guished them as males and females, and divided them into two groups, as they were under or over 25 years of age. The results are given in the following table :— Table II. Deaths Males. females. 25 and Under. Above 25. 25 and Under. Above 25. 25 197 58 294 18 191 34 183 Recoveries, &c Total admissions 222 352 209 217 Deaths per i,ooo 113 165 86 157 The great disparity shown in this table between the death-rate of males under and over 25 years of age, and the still greater dis- parity in the case of females, shows that this element of age is also one that cannot be disregarded when we compare the mortality of one hospital with that of another. There is another modifying cause affecting the death-rate of hospitals which may be illustrated by figures. I mean the propor- tion of free admissions to admissions by letter. The influence of these two modes of admission on the mortality of an hospital may be mferred from the statement that in King’s College Hospital, during the years 1863-64, I found the death-rate among 250 recom-