Draft report on hospital administration from the point of view of the patient : to be presented at the National Conference of Labour Women at Blackpool
1931-06 1931 1930s 5 pages PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL. DRAFT REPORT ON HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATION FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF THE PATIENT. TO BE PRESENTED AT THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF LABOUR WOMEN AT BLACKPOOL IN JUNE 1931. This Report deals only with hospital administration as the patient views it....
| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
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| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
June 1931
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/AAA82BEA-C109-4F87-A157-21450D6EA6FB http://hdl.handle.net/10796/8D2E4969-53B4-45EC-B6BF-FEF4910C481C |
| Summary: | 1931-06
1931
1930s
5 pages
PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL. DRAFT REPORT ON HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATION FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF THE PATIENT. TO BE PRESENTED AT THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF LABOUR WOMEN AT BLACKPOOL IN JUNE 1931. This Report deals only with hospital administration as the patient views it. At this moment when 129,000 beds formerly under the Poor Law are just coming under the care of the Public Health Authority in addition to the 200,000 beds already under their care, it is specially important to consider their position and future. Again, amongst voluntary hospitals with their 65,833 beds there are many which are finding it difficult to secure sufficient financial support to maintain full efficiency and the system of payment by patients is quickly developing. We are clearly on the eve of important changes in the hospital system and the purpose of this Report is to place before the delegates at the National Conference of Labour Women some of the difficulties and the needs of patients, or to put it in other words, to consider whether the Hospitals are supplying what we want. For this purpose we have considered mainly the general hospitals, not taking special account of the mental hospitals whose administration differs in material features, nor dealing specially with the infectious disease hospitals or sanatoria for tuberculosis, where the particular needs of patients vary greatly from the general run of medical and surgical cases. 1. GENERAL NEEDS There are certain general questions which affect all patients. A. Waiting Lists. Can persons needing hospital treatment secure it with the promptness that is requisite to ease pain and promote quick and satisfactory cure? We find that there are long waiting lists for hospitals which sometimes means even a year or more before admission. This means also that urgent cases are admitted into overcrowded wards and that others are sent out before the proper time. Another result is that the out-patient department is compelled to do urgent work that properly belongs to the in-patient side. These evils arise largely out of the lack of co-ordination between hospitals due to their separate administration, the voluntary hospitals generally acting as wholly independent units. The facts are clearly established that beds are insufficient especially for operative cases. It may be that few deaths take place as a result. But it is certain that waiting lists cause much pain, mental as well as physical, and must be detrimental to the patients who are kept waiting before admission or are hurried out of hospital too soon after treatment. B. Overcrowding. It has been estimated that the voluntary hospitals are at least 10,000 beds short, without any allowance for the natural growth in population. A study of hospital statistics shows that many patients are sent home before they are ready owing to the lack of beds. The average time for a patient in hospital is 21 days. Yet the average in some of the large hospitals is 12 days, the pressure on the beds having hurried the patients out too soon.
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| Physical Description: | TEXT |