The "Middlesex annual" : 1924.

  • Middlesex Hospital.
Date:
1924
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The "Middlesex annual" : 1924. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    7/40 (page 5)
    The Middlesex Hospital in 1835. Well now, the patient is your old Hospital, and you are its relatives and friends. Surely you will recognise your duties at this critical time. To come down to hard facts'1 the entire Old Block will have to come down and be rebuilt in successive sections : this is a big job, and will cost a very large sum of money. As is only too well known nowadays building is an expensive proceeding. It is of great importance that the essential work of the Hospital shall be interrupted as little as possible when the “house-breaking” begins. For this purpose the old City of Westminster Cleveland Street Sick Asylum has been leased, and the work of converting this into an Annexe to the Hospital fit to receive patients and to relieve the Out-patient Department is well in hand. This alone will cost over £30,000 in addition to the annual rent. So you will see that the Hospital is not neglecting its services to you in spite of the heavy expenses involved. This, however, is a mere fleabite compared with what must be spent if you are to have a safe and efficient Hospital equipped with all modern improvements. Less than this it is not right to offer you. The experts have definitely decided that no tinkering will be of any real use : the old worn-out machine must be scrapped and a completely new substitute must be erected. It is up to the friends of the Hospital to see to it that the necessary funds are forthcoming, whether they be those who can help with thousands of pounds or only with a few shillings. Take the number of In-patients treated in a year in the General and Cancer Wards as 6,000, and the number of patients treated in the Out-patient Department as 40,000, and say that those benefited during the last 10 years allowing for obvious deductions could be reached by this appeal we should have a body of 400,000 grateful friends who might each contribute just a few bricks, and be able to say “ Some portion of that noble building is mine.” Our task will be long and heavy, but do not despair when you hear that your new Hospital is reckoned to cost £500,000. This will take some time to