Report : 1933.

West Cornwall Hospital (Penzance, England)

Date:: 1933

Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report : 1933. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT TO THE Subscribers of West Cornwall Hospital, At the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Annual Meeting, March 7th, 1934. In Patients. The sequence of records made year by year in the number of patients treated was broken last year —the second time only in the course of n years. There were 807 in¬ patients, and this is the next to the highest in the long history of the Hospital, the greatest number being 842 in the previous year, 1932. But the average stay was longer by just over a day, and the total number of days spent in Hospital was greater by 89. The accommodation provides officially 50 beds. Last year the average number of beds occupied daily was 52.4. So that there still seems to be no limit to the demands which are being made upon the resources of hospitals. There was a period of welcome respite, during April and May, when for the first time the full accommodation was not occupied by six beds. But this state of affairs did not last long. On November 10th, the peak was reached by 67 patients being in Hospital, which meant 17 over the ordinary accommodation, and a severe strain upon the Matron and her staff. For the month of November the average was 61.53. The overcrowding has been accentuated in the Men’s Ward, where for months it has persistently obtained, and with a long waiting list reported. It caused the Committee to refer the question to their Building Committee, but their deliberations were overshadowed by the outlay that would be involved, and further consideration was deferred to the end of the financial year. This overcrowding in the Men’s Ward is partly due to road accidents, and those engaged in the adminstration of