Dr. Bruce Low's report to the Local Government Board on the arrangements made by the urban district council of Sevenoaks for the isolation of infectious diseases / [R. Bruce Low].

  • Low, Robert Bruce, 1846-1922.
Date:
[1896]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. Bruce Low's report to the Local Government Board on the arrangements made by the urban district council of Sevenoaks for the isolation of infectious diseases / [R. Bruce Low]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    >r. Bruce Low’s Report to the Local Government Board on the Arrangements made by the Urban District Council of Sevenoaks for the Isolation of Infectious library Diseases. iGeneral Collects R. Thorne Thorne, Medical Officer, Marcli 7tli, 1896. On January 13th, 1896, the Board received a letter from the lion, secretary of the Kent Nursing Institute, intimating that one of their nurses had died from typhoid fever on December 29th, 1895, at the Sevenoaks Urban Isolation Hospital, where she had been employed in nursing scarlatina cases. This letter contained a request that the Board should hold an inquiry into the circumstances attending the nurse’s death, which the Committee of the Nursing Institute attributed to the “insanitary condition of the hospital, to “ discomforts, and to improper work,” thrown upon the deceased by the “ mismanagement ” of the hospital. While this letter was being considered the Board received, on January 17th, a second communication, this time from the lady President of the Nursing Institute, urging that an official investigation of the facts relative to the nurse’s death should be made, and forwarding a statement from the Committee in support of the allegations contained in the lion, secretary’s letter of January 13th. A copy of the Committee’s statement was forwarded to the Sevenoaks Urban District Council with a request that the Board should be furnished with a report by the Council’s officers as to the facts connected with the death of the above- mentioned nurse from fever in the hospital. On January 29tli the clerk to the Urban District Council forwarded to the Board three reports, viz., (1) from the Sanitary Inspector, (2) from the recently appointed Medical Officer of Health, and (3) from the Sanitary Committee of the Urban Council. All these three reports disclaim responsibility for the alleged “ mismanagement ” of the hospital, and the Board were left to infer that no arrangements for the proper or sufficient supervision of the hospital and its administration had been made by the Urban Council. Tinder these circumstances it was thought advisable to have the hospital inspected, and the facts as to the death of the nurse investigated by one of the Board’s Medical Staff. The duty was allotted to me and I visited Seveooaks on February 6th. 1. The Sevenoaks Urban Isolation Hospital. This hospital (locally known and marked upon the Ordnance map as “The pest-house ”) is a two-storeyed dwelling, and comprises eight rooms, a kitchen, a wash-house or scullery, a bathroom, and a pantry, along with some outbuildings. It is situated on the confines of the Urban District in Oak Lane about a mile from Sevenoaks, and was formerly a private house. The site is under half an acre in extent and is bounded on three sides by grass land, and on the fourth by Oak Lane from which access to it is obtained. The site is enclosed merely by a low hedge. Part of the house and some of the out¬ buildings abut upon one of the fields bounding the site. There are, practically, no inhabited houses near the hospital; the nearest dwelling is about 250 yards off, and the next is about 400 yards away. The subsoil is gravel and sand. The ownership of this “ hospital ” is vested in the Overseers of the Poor for the old parish of Sevenoaks which includes, besides the Urban District, two small portions of the Sevenoaks llural District, viz., the hamlets of Seven¬ oaks Weald and Riverhead, which have the’ privilege of sending their infectious cases to the hospital. The Urban Council pay to the overseers a yearly nominal rent of bl. Water supply is from the Sevenoaks Water Company’s service, and is “laid on” to the hospital. The urban sewers are E 91094. 230.-3/96. Wt. 250^5. E. & S. A __„__ I , . . \ r-% i f 3 i ’ i w : • C ' i ( I ‘° * V 1*1 PI89G