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 Further, as each hospital acts as a separate unit, we find that some are overcrowded whilst their neighbours have beds to spare. One hospital over a period of years had more than 100% of its beds occupied and in 1928 the average was as high as 105.75%. On the other side we...
| 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/FF7ACB16-C645-40B3-AD39-34A7DC4F6AE8 http://hdl.handle.net/10796/D0E9C6A3-B0ED-4376-B053-467150857008 |
| Summary: | 1931-06
1931
1930s
5 pages
Further, as each hospital acts as a separate unit, we find that some are overcrowded whilst their neighbours have beds to spare. One hospital over a period of years had more than 100% of its beds occupied and in 1928 the average was as high as 105.75%. On the other side we find that the small hospitals have an average of 62%. This indicates a waste of nursing staff when it is so badly needed. In cases where a hospital shows an average above 90%, emergency beds are being used in the wards. C. Shortage of nurses. Closely connected with the problem of overcrowding is that of the shortage of nurses. More beds and smaller wards would mean the necessity for more nurses. The demand for nurses is greater than the supply. The London County Council alone spends over £2,000 per annum in advertising for nurses and has a special recruiting officer at a salary of £500 a year. Yet London is always an attractive centre for this as well as other kinds of employment. It is estimated that more nurses are needed to form an adequate nursing service. Sometimes matrons of large hospitals when asked the proportion of nurses to patients give figures which look as though the supply is sufficient. The ratio varies from 1 nurse to 4 patients to 1 for 6, but it is usual to count every nurse on the staff including those in the out-patient department and all the departments such as X-ray, light, etc. If the actual numbers in the wards were taken the number of patients per nurse would be very much higher. But overworked nurses cannot give the patients all the attention and kindness that they need. Three main reasons cause nursing to be unpopular as a profession:- 1. The age at which probationers are required to start for training is too high and there are waiting years after leaving school to fill in. 2. The hours are very long. 3. It is impossible to provide for old age from the salaries paid. D. Paying Patients. A distinction is now growing up between paying and non-paying patients in hospitals. The payments are sometimes for wards and may be as high as six guineas a week with medical fees in addition. For others there are often graded payments running from according to income. These payments may sometimes be done away with altogether without considering income if the patients can secure a subscriber's letter. In London there are about 1100 paying wards, and many of these have been taken from wards that were originally established for the sick poor. Thus the system is very unfair in its working and is rendered more so by the fact that the patients
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| Physical Description: | TEXT |