[Report 1932] / Medical Officer of Health, Wolverhampton County Borough.

  • Wolverhampton (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1932
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1932] / Medical Officer of Health, Wolverhampton County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/82 (page 11)
    4. Public Health Officers of the Authority. (See list on page 3). 5. Nursing1 in the Home. 'There is no change in the arrangements described in previous Reports, either for general nursing or for fever nursing. 6. Laboratory Facilities. There is no change to be recorded. A small Clinical Laboratory is now being built and equipped at New Cross Hospital. 7. Legislation in Force. No Bye-laws or Regulations were adopted by the Council during the year. 8. Hospitals. Excluding the special hospitals (Eye Infirmary and Women’s Hospital), there are 791 beds in the town available for the treatment of the sick. It was stated in my Report for 1930 that approximately 60% of the in-patients at the Royal Hospital came from districts beyond the Borough boundaries, and that about 30% of the patients at the Municipal Hospital were admitted under an agreement with the County Council. Last year the average number of occupied beds at the Royal Hospital was 88% of the total beds available, and at New Cross the figure was 75%. The Municipal Hospital suffers from one disadvantage as compared with the Royal Hospital, in that it has no convalescent home attached to it, and, therefore, the duration of in¬ patient treatment has to be longer before a case can be sent home. It has already been stated that Wolverhampton is particularly well equipped as regards hospitals, and that it is in fact a centre for hospital treatment for a very large area of the surrounding country. At the Municipal Hospital last year a scheme was adopted for using two of the wards in the general part of the institution for the reception of selected infirm female cases who had pr eviously been accommodated in the hospital wards. This plan has set free a certain number of additional beds in the hospital for the treatment of acute cases. The efficiency of the medical services at New Cross has recently been en¬ hanced by the provision of a properly equipped clinical laboratory.