Report of the Committee of the Portland Hospital.

  • Committee of the Portland Hospital.
Date:
1901
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report of the Committee of the Portland Hospital. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    who were desirous that their conditions should be com- municated. Notices were .sent to the |jress on receipt of the weekly reports from Sur{reon-Coloncl Kilkelly, which were received rej^ularly after the hospital was established. The.se reports contained the weekly list of admissions to and discharges from the hospital, and proved to the .satisfaction of all concerned the good work done. At the end of March, when the weekly return showed that the general advance had resulted in a great diminution of the number of ca.ses admitted, it was a matter of much con- gratulation to hear, in response to a telegram from the Duke of l^ortland, that Lord Roberts had ordered the hospital to Bloemfontein, and to know that it arrived there when hospitals were most needed. And the subscribers will be glad to hear that the request of the Medical Staff that the Portland Hospital might be maintained beyond the time for which it had been sent out, was responded to by the Duke of Portland, who gave his guarantee for any expense that might be incurred by keeping it in Africa till July. One subject I should like to mention is the reason for the return of the hospital in August. It will be remembered that the orderlies and nurses had arranged to stay on so as to complete a term of nine months, and that some of the staff and nurses were also bound to return to England in September, by which time the nine months would have been completed. When, therefore, in July the hospital had become very empty. Lord Roberts was a.sked whether he wished it to remain in South Africa and go to Pretoria, to which he replied that it had been decided to send no more hospitals to the Transvaal; so that, as in the opinion of the Surgeon-General there was no need for the hospital to remain in the Free State, where there was now plenty of accommodation and little sickness, it was arranged with the military authorities that some of the staff should return to England in August in charge of invalids on a hospital ship. In accordance with this decision, a cable was re- ceived on 12th July announcing that the hospital was to