An introductory address on the future of St. Thomas's Hospital : delivered at the Hospital in the Surrey Gardens, on the occasion of the opening of the session of its Medical and Surgical College, October 1st, 1862 / by John Syer Bristowe.

  • Bristowe, John Syer, 1827-1895.
Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An introductory address on the future of St. Thomas's Hospital : delivered at the Hospital in the Surrey Gardens, on the occasion of the opening of the session of its Medical and Surgical College, October 1st, 1862 / by John Syer Bristowe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    with those that are severely ill^ the great determining ]3oint in their selection of a Hospital; and that, hence^ of necessity, in moving from the centre to the circumference, from the denser to the sparser population, from the more accessible site to the less accessible, a Hospital must lose proportionately in influence, and general useful- ness, and become finally, if still a Hospital, a merely local institu- tion. If then, we would consult the convenience of the poor, and their emergencies, if we wonld wish the Hospital to continue a place of cure for cases of acute sickness, and of sudden injury; it seems to m.e manifest, that we must place it in the centre of some populous district, and near to leading lines of traffic; and, now too, that the poor of neighbouring counties avail themselves so largely of the facilities which railways afford, in close proximity, if possible, to one or more railway termini. Among the rumours which are afloat, in reference to the future of the Hospital, there is one to the eff'ect that the question of the divi- sion of the Hospital into two Hospitals has been entertained. The plan, to which I refer, is that of making a Eeceiving-House, or Hos- pital for urgent cases in London, and a second Hospital, for those who are convalescent, and for chronic cases, in the country. I sin- cerely hope that no such scheme may be carried into effect. I have endeavoured to show, and, I think, I have shown, that for the in- door recipients of the bounty of general Hospitals, well-ventilated, clean, uncrowded i^ooms are everything, country air little better than a delusion. There is, therefore, no sufficient sanitary need for this fissiparous process, and on sanitary grounds only, as it seems to me, could such a scheme have been proposed. The effect of it would be, to split up our noble Institution into two second- or third-rate Hos- pitals, one of which w^ould probably at length fulfil in an imperfect degree the functions of the old St. Thomases, while the other would gradually be appropriated to objects of another kind. If it should appear that the present Hospital accommodation of London is super- abundant, and that a portion of it could be devoted, advantageously for the public, to the purposes of a sanatorium, or convalescent insti- tution or asylum; then, even though the glory of St. Thomas^'s should thereby wane, the utility of the object to be gained by its division might be a sufficient argument in favour of the sacrifice. But, in fact, the Hospital accommodation of the Metropolis is not sufficient to satisfy the demands upon it: it has not even increased in anything like proportion to the growth of population. Hence, it seems to me.