Annual reports of the statistical committee and the medical superintendents of the infectious hospitals and imbecile asylums, for the year 1887 / Metropolitan Asylums' Board.

  • Metropolitan Asylums Board (London, England). Statistical Committee.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual reports of the statistical committee and the medical superintendents of the infectious hospitals and imbecile asylums, for the year 1887 / Metropolitan Asylums' Board. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of the Local Government Board and the Medical Superintendents of the Managers’ Hospitals. The forms were accordingly agreed upon after several meetings of the Committee, at which Dr. Bridges, of the Local Government Board, and the Medical Superintendents attended by invitation. They were adopted by the Board and are in use in all its Hospitals. (4.) The organisation of a system of clerical assistance to the Medical Superintendents during times of epidemic, whereby they will be relieved of some portion of their strictly non-professional clerical work, and have more time to make the professional observations necessary for recording the matter included in the charts and cards (adopted by the Board on 14th January, 1888). (5.) The collection, in the present conveniently sized volume, of the Annual Reports of the Medical Superintendents, and the collation of the statistical information appended thereto in sets of tables with summaries. These Reports and Tables are arranged in three divisions, referring respectively to I. Fever ... ... pages 17 to 41 and 50 to 77. II. Smallpox ... pages 42 to 49 and 78 to 82. III. Imbecility ... pages 83 to 124. Annual Reports, 1887. I. Fever.—Referring to the Reports of the Medical Superintendents, the Committee desire to draw special attention to the observations therein contained on the following subjects :— (a) The practice op discharging nurses immediately a reduction in the number of patients under treatment takes place, entailing the necessit}^ of appointing a new nursing staff when the numbers again increase. The objections to this, commented upon by some of the Medical Superintendents, are, firstly, the place of nurses who have acquired immunity from disease is filled by those who have not a similar immunity ; and, secondly, the difficulty of selecting, at short notice, a new nursing staff of the character and capacity required. (See pp. 17, 24, 33, and 39). The following return, extracted from returns which the Com¬ mittee obtained from the various Hospitals, shows that a total of no less than 64 officials contracted fever, and were warded during the year for a total of 2,798 days :—