Reports on hospitals and the patient and a domestic workers' charter
1931 1931 1930s 22 pages 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 adminis...
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| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
| Language: | English English |
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London : Labour Party
1931
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/8366A16C-AB72-46DF-A0F6-D535FEFF040A http://hdl.handle.net/10796/4F743D58-E1F4-4023-B20D-7F25B7E405F8 |
| Summary: | 1931
1931
1930s
22 pages
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 partly out of the lack of co-ordination between hospitals, due to their separate administration, each voluntary hospital generally acting as an independent unit. The facts, however, are clearly established that beds are insufficient, especially for operation 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. In 1928 the Voluntary Hospitals Commission estimated that the voluntary hospitals in England and Wales were at least 10,000 beds short of what was reasonably necessary, while the Report on the Hospital Services of Scotland in 1925 stated that 3,000 more beds were required. A study of hospital statistics shows that many patients are sent home before they are ready, owing (4)
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| Physical Description: | TEXT |