Annual report with statement of accounts and list of subscibers to the Devizes & District Hospital : 1926.

  • Devizes & District Hospital (Devizes, England)
Date:
1926
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report with statement of accounts and list of subscibers to the Devizes & District Hospital : 1926. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    8/38 (page 4)
    I rom the foregoing analysis of Income and Expenditure it will bo seen that the year’s working left a balance in hand of X'87 5s. 8d.. of which £49 2s. Id. represents the balance brought forward from 1925. The total expenditure for the year ( £2,372 13s. Od.) is some £112 more than for tlx* previous year, the excess being attributable entirely to medical and establishment expenses, the cost of maintenance of patients by itself, excluding those expenses, being practically the same as last year. The total cost of each patient works out on the average at £2 14s. 3d. a week, being 2s. 4Jd. more than for 1925. While the total number of patients treated in the Hospital during the year was 20 less than in 1925 ( 273 against 293), owing to the fact that the average duration of each case was 1\ days longer (23.4 davs against 21.9), the actual number of patient days in 1926 was only 14 less than in the year before, while patient and staff days combined were only 30 fewer. It will be recollected that the year 1925 was tlx* peak year of the Hospital since its opening so far as regards numbers of patients. During the past year out of a total of 273 patients who passed through the Hospital 90 were treated entirely free of chnrge. So far as the Committee are concerned, no charge would have been made in several additional cases; but in these the patients or their friends, or Friendly Societies, volunteered small contributions towards tlx* cost of their maintenance—action on their part which the Committee greatly appreciated. The receipts from private patients occupying the two single wards exceeded those of the previous year by upwards of £130. An appreci¬ able profit over average full cost of maintenance is made on these patients, which goes in aid of the general expenses of the Hospital. Notwithstanding the difficulties of last year the fuel supply was at no time deficient, and the Subscribers are to ’lie congratulated upon the fact that the necessary heating lighting and power were main¬ tained at a cost of not more than £30 in excess of that of the previous year. The cost, including repairs and replacements, of the Hospital Electric Plant, which in addition to lighting provides current for the X-ray work, amounted approximately to £72 10s. Od. The total con¬ sumption of current for the year was approximated 1,254 units, giving a cost of just under Is. 2d. a unit. During the year the floors of the entrance hall and corridors lead¬ ing to the wards and the theatre have been covered with rubber. This has served to deaden noise, as to which some complaints had been received. The cost of this work, .£92 Is. 9d., was defrayed out of the Special Reserve Fund. The total amount received in respect of annual subscriptions has been maintained at exactly the same figure as for 1925, which year showed an increase of about £20 over 1924. The Committee would be very glad if the numbers of the regular annual subscribers could be increased, and if subscribers would l>e good enough to make a point of paying their subscriptions as early as possible in the year. During the year the Committee have had under consideration an application, made by the Great Western Railway branch of the Hospitals’ Saving Association, that the Hospital would admit mem¬ bers of the Railway Company’s local staff and their families at a fixed charge of 6s. a day, irrespective of the earnings of the individual.